Put Your Bank on the iPhone Main Screen (NetBanker)

You don't have to be Google, NBC or Steve Jobs's cousin to get your logo placed on one of the most coveted pieces of real estate on the planet, the main screen of Apple's iPhone. Now anyone can do it for about the cost of phone service for a month.

When we first wrote about the iPhone a year ago (here), we created a fake picture of it with a Wells Fargo logo superimposed on the main screen (see inset). At that time, we would never have guessed that a year later Apple would enable any website to create an iPhone main screen icon by simply dropping a line of code into their website.

It's as simple as creating favicons, those little symbols that appear next to your URL in the browser address bar. Here's a simple 25-word explanation of how to do it. For more info, consult the Apple iPhone Dev Center here.

Once you have the code installed, users with updated iPhone software will be able to install your icon by navigating to your page, clicking on the plus button at the bottom of the screen, and selecting "Add to Home Screen."

Comments (8)

Scott Loftesness

Jim,

This is cool.

I set one of these up for Payments News (using the generic Glenbrook "g" logo) yesterday. Now if you add Payments News to your home page on your iPhone, you see a nice Glenbrook logo right on the iPhone home page.

Scott

Posted by Scott Loftesness | January 17, 2008 7:31 AM

Posted on January 17, 2008 07:31

Gabriel Garcia:

Great post - thank you for the great information. I enjoy my daily dose of Netbanker and enjoy reading the research reports - big fan!

Gabriel

Posted by Gabriel Garcia | January 17, 2008 9:52 AM

Posted on January 17, 2008 09:52

Wow - this was such a useful post that within about an hour of reading I created and iPhone icon for the Tech CU Blog. One of our members had coincidentally inquired about the same thing the day before. We tested it on his iPhone and enjoys it!

Thanks!

Gabriel Garcia
Tech CU

Posted by Gabriel Garcia | January 17, 2008 4:30 PM

Posted on January 17, 2008 16:30

Ilieva Ageenko:

Wachovia is proud to say that a Web Clip for Wachovia.com is now available for all iPhones users!!

Wachovia's experimentation with the iPhone actually began last summer when we encouraged our key developers to become experts on the device's software.

And, in anticipation of Apple’s pending official announcement about the release of the new icon feature, our development team had actually already created the Wachovia icon and installed it on our test iPhone – thus readying us to be “out the door” as soon as possible. We are pleased see Wachovia becoming one of the first major corporations to make a Web clip available to iPhone customers.

We are currently working on a customized Wachovia.com home page for the iPhone to link with the icon and have future ambitions for further customization for online banking, as the iPhone has become a significant share of the market and opens the door to new thinking about mobility and user interface.

Wachovia will be providing information about the icon and Web app on Wachovia.com and making “iPhone” keyword available in our search soon.

We hope Wachovia iPhone users and future customers will appreciate the new access and experience.

Great job Netbanker.com on recognizing the possibilities and keeping the industry on its toes!

Ilieva Ageenko, Director of Emerging Trends

Posted by Ilieva Ageenko | January 18, 2008 1:18 PM

Posted on January 18, 2008 13:18

Tom Valenti:

Thanks. We also had our icon uploaded by the nd of the day this was posted.

Posted by Tom Valenti | January 22, 2008 9:43 AM

Posted on January 22, 2008 09:43

Jason M. Putorti:

Feel free to add mint.com to your iPhone... we have officially joined the party.

Thanks for the tip!

Jason M. Putorti
Lead Designer, mint.com

Posted by Jason M. Putorti | January 24, 2008 6:34 PM

Posted on January 24, 2008 18:34

Stephen Davis:

Riverside Bank may now be the smallest bank ($55M) to have an iPhone homepage button. An iPhone optimized log-in page is coming soon.

I like ClairMail's mobile platform, but most options for small community banks are not yet feasible. At least for now, mobile banking does not cost our institution a dime and is free to our customers with an iPhone.

Stephen Davis, CEO
Riverside Bank

Posted by Stephen Davis | January 27, 2008 8:29 PM

Posted on January 27, 2008 20:29

Johnny:

BB&T also has an iPhone webclip.

Posted by Johnny | April 3, 2008 11:32 AM

Posted on April 3, 2008 11:32