Call this the most hotly debated topic in mobile banking for2013: Does your institution need a tablet app?

Fact: Tablets have become ubiquitous. Research outfit BIIntelligence put 2012 tablet sales at over 122 million worldwide.

Fact: Although phone apps can be pressed into service on tablets(that is, an iPhone app usually will run on an iPad), it's not ahappy experience. The use case of mobile banking on a smartphonerevolves around short bursts of transactions or informationgathering. On a tablet, a user typically is inclined to longersessions, with more in-depth explorations. That's why true tabletapps are winning fans.

Fact: Tablet users have, whether they know it or not, a backdoorinto banking by using a Web browser (Safari or Chrome) to logdirectly into their credit union's online banking portal. Anadvantage there is that, generally, mobile banking apps providereduced feature sets (new payees often cannot be added and in manyconfigurations it's not possible even to pay bills at all). Bygoing in through the Web route, the user gets the full range ofonline banking functions delivered to the tablet.

Fact: Very few credit unions presently have tablet apps. By thecount of Austin, Texas, apps developer Malauzai, maybe 10 percentdo, said Robb Gaynor. Many, many more have phone apps at this point, saidGaynor, a Malauzai co-founder.

Why don't more credit unions have tablet apps? “All financialinstitutions are trying to manage their costs,” said MickeyGoldwasser, a vice president at Q2ebanking, a technology developer also in Austin, Texas. Henonetheless predicted: “2013 will be the year more credit unionsdeploy tablet apps.”

Once the many facts are sorted, one fact stands out: Thevaulting numbers of tablets make tablet apps something of aninevitability.

Big credit unions certainly are already in the thick of tabletapp rollout. April Clobes, chief operating officer at Michigan State UniversityFederal Credit Union, a $2.3 billion cooperative based in EastLansing, said a tablet app is on her institution's roadmap for2013.

“People spend more time on their tablets than they do on phones.We specifically want to add PFM functionality for a tablet app,”she said. “There are things members will want to do on theirtablets that they wouldn't do on a phone.”

She added that “more people don't want to bank on a desktopcomputer” – and MSUFCU wants to be able to give them the functionsthey will want via a tablet app, she said.

Rob Cummings, senior vice president at the $3.3 billion Mountain America Credit Union n West Jordan, Utah, notedhis credit union recently rolled out an iPad app to its 400,000members. “With our tablet app, you get to do more and you can seemore,” said Cummings, pointing to the more generous screen sizes ontablets.

Cummings added that in 2013 Mountain America will roll out anAndroid app and all the tablet apps will probably get upgradedfeature sets (probably including the ability to add new payeeswithin the mobile app, which presently is not possible).

Said Cummings: “Mobile is the future.”

As for why Mountain America elected to introduce an iPad appfirst, he said it was a decision driven by numbers, where iPadtraffic was many multiples of the traffic seen on Android deviceswhen that decision was made.

Android sales are picking up, however, and that will show up inusage and thus the intent to debut an Android app in the newyear.

Probably these credit unions are at the head of the line, butthe line of institutions that will debut a tablet app in 2013 isgrowing. One reason: Price will be a less of a factor in decidingto buy, or not buy, a tablet app, said Gaynor who said he had heardmany vendors are working to keep tablet app prices down, at leastfor customers who also are buying phone apps.

“We are going live with our first credit union tablet app veryshortly,” said Gaynor. He indicated Malauzai believed about halfits current customer roster will fairly quickly sign up for atablet app because recognition will grow that this is indeed adifferent kind of app – it does more, differently than does thesmartphone app – and, very probably, many of the new tablet ownerswill indeed want a banking app to use on their device and if theircredit union doesn't provide it, it is too easy for them to findalternatives from big banks.

Add this up and if the optimistic predictions hold true,pressures on credit unions to offer a tablet app will intensify as2013 plays out.

“Users want an app – we have seen that,” said Cummings atMountain America. And the rest of the message is that thoseinstitutions that resist offering one may find there is a painfulprice to pay for inaction.