Fidelity slips in ahead of Pershing on Google phones with WealthCentral for Android

Fidelity announced yesterday that it has released WealthCentral Mobile for the Android platform, making it the first custodian to hit the Android Market with an RIA-centric app. We reported last week that Pershing would be the first with its upcoming release in April, but Fidelity has beat it to the punch.

The Boston-based custodian’s app is already available for download today.

Fidelity’s Android app allows advisors to access “client profile information, positions and balances for brokerage and non-brokerage accounts, transaction history details, current account alerts as well as view up-to-the-minute third-party market news and quote details,” says Stephen Austin, spokesman for Fidelity Investments.

Fidelity released its iPhone version in February at the T3 Conference. See: Fidelity releases WealthCentral Mobile for the iPhone. According to Austin, the app has been downloaded about 700 times.

This second release in quick succession is a strong indication that Fidelity is serious about covering the mobile space. The second-largest custodian is racing fourth-largest Pershing, which made early investments in mobile. See: Pershing keeps ahead in the mobile space with an Android app and mobile trading.

“Fidelity’s aggressive move to Android validates what Pershing has been saying for a while: that mobile devices are becoming an increasingly important channel for servicing clients and custodians who ignore this trend will ultimately place their clients at a disadvantage,” says Mike Golaszewski, business technology officer for Pershing.

Mike Golaszewski: Fidelity’s strategy is to
simply re-present the same HTML screens
on both iPhone and Android. This
approach has allowed them to beat
us to the Android Marketplace by
a few weeks.

Web views

As we reported for the iPhone launch, Fidelity has built “web views” for its mobile apps — interfaces that can be used within apps for different mobile platforms, in order to reduce the development time for each one. We can see the result of that in the relatively quick follow up with the Android platform.

But the cost of web views is that they often make navigation within the app slightly less smooth than the alternative, which is using the buttons and user interface elements that are built in to the mobile operating system itself.

Pershing, on the other hand, has gone the all-native route with all of its mobile apps. We’re still waiting to see which route Schwab and TD Ameritrade will take with their upcoming mobile apps.

“As you’ve noted, Fidelity’s strategy is to simply re-present the same HTML screens on both iPhone and Android,” says Golaszewski. “This approach has allowed them to beat us to the Android Marketplace by a few weeks, but we feel that our “Android native” application will provide a much better user experience than simply re-presenting the HTML screens — we can tailor each application to a device’s strengths rather than coding to the lowest common denominator.”

Client detail is served in a
web view, like the iPhone version.

The other notable difference is that WealthCentral Mobile for iPhone and Android don’t yet have any trading capability; Pershing’s NetX360 Mobile for Android will support trading upon its release next month. Austin says that trading will come with the iPad app, along with interactive charting and the ability to look up account details, but didn’t give a timeframe for the iPad release. See: Advisor Tested: Top iPad apps for RIAs.

He also said that Fidelity would eventually add trading capabilities to all its apps.

iPhone version well-received

Though there aren’t enough ratings on Apple’s App Store to get a good picture of the Fidelity iPhone app’s reception by advisors, the reviews so far have been positive. One advisor left this review:

This app is not a scaled down version of Wealth Central. Having just downloaded the Fidelity app I was not expecting much other than headlines. I am pleasantly surprised that this little app provides everything from balances and position history to client contact information. It is a modified version that works for the smaller screen of the iphone. If you are an advisor and use Wealth Central you will not be disappointed. Even the alerts section allows you to view your alerts instantly without having to login through encrypted email alerts. Very useful for on the fly information with clients. Just make sure your phone is password protected!

Alerts are served in the native
Android format.

In an earlier interview at the technology conference T3, Page Clark, product manager responsible for mobile technologies, explained that many of the design choices for WealthCentral Mobile came from previous user testing experience with Fidelity’s retail iPhone app. Fidelity has a user testing lab at their headquarters in Boston called the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, or “F-Cat,” that is host to eye- and finger-tracking equipment for desktop and now mobile apps.

Navigation similar to iPhone app

The navigation on Fidelity’s new Android app for advisors is just like its iPhone app, with four main parts:

• Profile gives an overview of a client — their contact details, net worth, and account number. Supports tap-to-call and will support tap-to-email and tap-to-map in upcoming releases.

• Positions shows specific holdings, total value, gains and losses.

• Balances gives detail on account totals and buying power.

• History reveals a list of all of the recent events on the account.