St George issues Windows Phone 7 app

With flagship Windows Phone 7 handsets growing slowly in number, one of the obvious questions anyone considering getting a new Windows phone is about apps.

At HTC's recent launch of the HTC HD7 phone, a Microsoft spokesman said there were 10,000 apps for the OS, growing by 100 a day. There were 200,000 Android apps and 300,000 apps on Apple's App Store.

Quantity doesn’t mean quality, but St George's app - which it says is the first Australian native banking app for Windows Phone 7 - highlights the fact that it's still early days for the phone OS.

While popular apps like Facebook are available on the platform, as are Microsoft's Office Hub, there's clearly not the same number available as you'll see elsewhere. On the upside you can trial apps (if given the option) before you buy.

Phone banking is an increasingly popular activity, with several banks talking up how many smartphone users they have.  

NAB recently claimed a 250 percent increase in mobile banking in the last year. "Mobile devices" now account for more than 12 percent of the bank's total Internet banking traffic each month. And 600,000 users are logging into St George's iOS apps each month, according to a statement by the bank last year.

On Android, the NAB, Commonwealth and St George all have apps. Worryingly, when we checked just before Christmas last year, there were also a number of unofficial banking apps listed for download.

Many bank apps had basic functions, with some opening up mobile versions of websites. While St George's Android app let users check balances, transfer funds and pay bills, the new Windows Phone 7 app was limited to checking balances and transaction history, locate branches and ATMs.