I'm at the Pyxis mobile conference learning about the latest and greatest. Pyxis is one of a number of Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAP). The goal is to write the software once so that it can be deployed anywhere: Android, iOS, Blackberry, wherever... There seem to be three major ways to implement the solution:

1. Create a wrapper app that gives you a web interface that looks like an app.
2. Compile down to native code from an integrated development environment (IDE).
3. Create meta data that enables a local interpreter on the phone to render your app.

This last mode is how Pyxis chooses to implement their solution. The app is essentially an interpreter that takes Pyxis meta data from the Pyxis server to render the app on the local device. I must confess I wouldn't have come up with this solution, but it comes with a unique advantage: When you update your app, you don't need to update the app in the app store. The downloaded app is the Pyxis interpreter. To change the behavior of the app, the enterprise changes it on the app server and it is automatically updated. Given the dynamics of working with the app stores, the ability to upgrade apps without going through another approval process is a significant advantage. Additionally, a bank can push different functionality to different users, based on login profile. This latter functionality resonates with large banks. Most banks will want to use software from any number of mobile banking providers. You can see our reviews of them here.