Stop thinking small. Mobile is in every hand today just aboutand there is no shinier proof than the recent rollout of mobilebanking — to a surprisingly huge membership segment – by DesertSchools Federal Credit Union, the $3 billion, Phoenix-basedinstitution.

Desert Schools had been dithering about rolling out mobile for someyears – “We knew we needed it to retain members,” said CathyGraham, a vice president who said that such plans had been put onhold as Desert Schools found itself in one of the geographieshardest hit by the recession. But when the economy began to perkup, Desert Schools put mobile banking back on its must-do list.

Desert Schools pulled the trigger this summer – uploading appsto the Apple Apps Store, Android Play, and even the BlackBerry Appsstore – and 90 days later it has a stunning number to report: “30%of our online banking users are now using our mobile apps,” saidGraham. That is 57,000 users for the Desert Schools apps and theyhave been enrolled with minimal marketing push to the creditunion's 322,000 members.

“We have notices on our online banking site, we sent out emails,and we put up notices on Twitter and Facebook,” said Graham, whoacknowledged the efforts, collectively, had been scant – but themember embrace has been thunderous.

Note: Traditionally, institutions have set modest adoption goals– usually 10% to 20% of online banking members in year one was thetarget for many mobile banking launches.

Why did Desert Schools do so much better? “There just was a lotof pent-up demand. Our members had been telling us they wantedmobile banking,” said Graham.

Desert Schools frankly would have been happier with a slowerlaunch. It believed it had perfected the apps in arduous internaltesting, but who knows until the service goes live? They were happyto have an anticipated trickle of adopters so they would haveplenty of time to smooth out wrinkles.

There were in fact no bumps in the rollout – no hitches – butthe members showed up in droves. “Members were finding the appsthemselves in the Apps Store and installing them,” said Graham.

Think about it. This is the time for mobile and the DesertSchools case study illustrates it perfectly.

The iPhone was introduced in June, 2007. Nearly 500 millionsmartphones shipped globally in 2011. One in two US consumers used asmartphone in early 2012, per Nielsen research. Maybe five million iPhone 5s shipped in itsfirst September weekend of selling and this nudges smartphonemarket share only higher.

Bottom line: smartphones are everywhere and so are high-speeddata networks (3G and faster 46) that now cover much of thenation's population. (Verizonclaims its 4G LTE network can be accessed by 75% of the population.AT&T makes a similar claim.) Put together the ingredients and,suddenly, it makes perfect sense that, yes, members want mobileapps and when they have them, they will use them.

So it was at Desert Schools.

Tellingly, Graham admits that Desert Schools' internal targetadoption goal had been 15,000 in the first year (maybe 8% of onlinebanking users). They got almost four times more in the first 90days and, importantly, “these are more engaged and profitablemembers. Our average mobile banking user is twice as profitable asour average member,” said Graham. That average mobile banking userincidentally has 46 interactions per month with the app, which is 1½ per day.

The most common complaint heard by Graham regarding mobilebanking: “When will you have remote deposit capture?” she said Theanswer is imminently, probably by the end of October.

Another finding: it seems the vast majority of members who havejumped on Desert Schools' mobile banking come to this already welltaught. “We get very few requests for help,” said Graham, whobelieves the early adopters probably have been using mobile bankingapps from other institutions so they already know what to do.

Graham poignantly asks: “Just think what would have happened tothose members if we hadn't introduced our apps?

She indicated that now she wants to track a group of earlyadopters, “to see if they increase their relationships with us. Sofar what we are seeing is that many of the earliest mobile bankingusers also make heavy use of branches.” That's hard to explain butit so far is fact for Desert Schools.

“I think the app increases our stickiness, she said.