Time to take off the cheerleader outfit because the reality isthat, in lots of ways, mobile banking continues to disappoint manycredit unions and members.

The bright potential to truly revolutionize how and where weconsume financial services is there, but there also are many bitsof gloomy news that suggest new, better ways of deploying mobilebanking need to be found.

First a bit of good news, from Michael Poulos, CEO of Michigan First, a $681 million credit union inthe Detroit suburb of Lathrup Village, Mich. “Technology is a greatequalizer. We can compete with Chase because we can provide thesame technology. We don't have to have 300 branches. The cellphoneis moving into our sweet spot.”

“Mobile provides convenience. We believe it will be very goodfor member retention,” said Ken Senus, senior vice president of ITat $1.3 billion Navigant Credit Union in Smithfield, R.I. Navigant, Senusrelated, introduced its mobile apps a couple months ago and withminimal promotion already 3,500 members have downloaded them.

Senus' goal: To get every current online banking member alsoenrolled in mobile. He did not set a timeline for that goal but, heelaborated, Navigant is seeking to build a mobile banking app thatmirrors the institution's online banking experience.

That is the dream: when the smartphone becomes a branch in everypocket, suddenly the small institutions can go toe to toe with themega banks.

But to get there, hurdles will have to be jumped.

Case in point: buried in a new study from Javelin Research is a startling data point – bankingconsumers who reported troubles accessing mobile banking “tripledsince 2009 from 4% to over 14% in 2012.” More than one in seven ofus are saying they are interested in using mobile banking but theycannot access.

In an interview, Javelin's Mary Monahan said that Javelin had not probed into the why of theaccess difficulties. It could be the financial institution does notsupport this consumer's phone, for instance. It could be that theconsumer is in an area with anemic cellular data services. It couldalso be that the consumer simply finds his/her institution'sbanking app to be puzzling.

None of those possibilities is particularly compelling but theplain reality is that a sizable consumer cohort appears to feelabandoned by a mobile banking they want to embrace.

Another troubling fact: adoption of mobile banking by creditunion members continues to lag. Many institutions still can claimonly single digit usage by members – and that is at a time when therace into mobile is transforming just about every other sector ofthe economy.

A reason for this, said Robb Gaynor, a co-founder of Austin,Texas, apps developer Malauzai, is that many institutions claim tooffer mobile banking but what they offer is a mobile “optimized”version of their online banking portal and “the experience isterrible,” said Gaynor. “Browser based mobile banking is ruiningthis. It's a disappointing experience.”

Gaynor's fear is that a member who tries browser-based mobilebanking and who swears to never go there again may be tough topersuade to give the slicker, apps-based mobile banking experiencea try.

If they do, believes Gaynor, they will become converts to abetter way to bank. By Gaynor's math, a typical credit union thatlaunches a mobile app will have around 10% of its members active inthe channel 90 days after launch.

Withing a year, said Gaynor, 15% to 20% of members will beactive mobile banking customers.

He added, optimistically, “We expect mobile banking to take offin half the time it took online banking to.”

To Gaynor, a key to sustaining mobile banking adoption is tokeep enriching the app – the better it gets, with more features,the more members will find a reason to go mobile.

Fiserv's SteveShaw has a similarly optimistic outlook on the future of mobilebanking. His view is that “we are on the cusp of substantialconsumer adoption. It will come in 12 to 18 months.”

His perspective is that the market is coming to maturity, asmore consumers have smartphones and they know about apps and,importantly, they also begin to use phones as financial tools,buying coffee at Starbucks or lumber with PayPal at Home Depot.

Put the ingredients together and, said Shaw, it's an incendiarymix that will deliver explosive growth in mobile banking, at leastat the institutions that have invested in upgrading theirtools.

“Financial institutions need to keep investing in mobile, orthey will lose consumers,” said Shaw. “This is a uniqueopportunity.”