Last week at the Web 2.0 Summit Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker did her annual slide presentation focusing on the growth prospects of the mobile Web this year. It is an extremely interesting perspective with tons of data and facts. You can download the presentation here.

I think it is a great read for people interested in mobile financial services due to some of these key points she brought up:

• Companies must need to be on board with the mobile web. There is still time but they need to act soon.
• Location-based services are the “secret sauce” for the success mobile web services.
• The iPhone/iPod touch is the fastest growing consumer electronics product of all time.
• The adoption of the iPhone and iPod Touch is outstripping the early adoption the desktop Internet. Only 8 quarters after launch, the iPhone and iPod Touch has more than  five times as many users as Netscape, and eight times as many as AOL at a comparable points in their histories 
• Next Generation Platforms (Social Networking + Mobile) are Driving Unprecedented Change in Communications & Commerce.
• Facebook is the largest share gainer of online usage over the past 3 years.
• Mobile Social Networking in Japan is 3 times greater (and Rising) than Desktop Social Networking
• Apple unshackled mobile developers from Carrier Walled Gardens
• There are significant runways for mobile online commerce / paid services / advertising monetization; data access is likely to lose relative revenue share in the mobile Internet ecosystem.
• While Vendors & Advertisers tend to ‘Pay’ on Desktop Internet (via Advertising + eCommerce) Users tend to ‘Pay’ on Mobile Internet (via Premium Services)

Based on some of the data in this presentation it is clear that mobile services (like mobile financial services) will become mainstream in the not to distant future. Hence it would be prudent for institutions (such as banks and operators) to ramp up their development of mobile financial service offerings even if a current ROI business case can't be made.