Fidelity International has introduced a free application for the iPhone that lets investors track the performance of funds on the company’s FundsNetwork.

The application was designed by mobile developer 2ergo and gives British users a platform for tracking investments and accessing breaking investment news and opinions. Users can also use the application to contact Fidelity – via click-to-call functionality and links to its Web site – to make investments and redeem online discounts.

“We decided that launching an app made sense since people in the U.K. are spending more and more time browsing on the Internet via mobile technology,” said Rob Fisher, Kent, Britain-based head of U.K. personal investments at Fidelity International. “By making the Fidelity app available, it means that our existing clients and anyone who is interested in investments can keep track of market movements and fund prices, with the added benefit of hearing from various financial experts.”

Fidelity International, based in Bermuda, is an international asset management company and a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments.

Manchester, Britain-based 2ergo is a mobile software developer that specializes in mobile banking, news and entertainment.

Many financial services firms have been extending their reach into the mobile space, though more attention has been given to the rapidly growing field of mobile banking (see story), rather than focusing primarily on investment tracking.

Fidelity has been active in mobile this year, promoting its iPhone application (see story), which launched in February and upgraded to include additional accounts, such as retirement packages, last month (see story).

This is Fidelity International’s first application targeted at British consumers.

How it works
The Fidelity International application lets users track any of the more than 1,100 investment funds on the company’s FundsNetwork.

After launching the application, users access a home page that lets them search for investment fund information, view funds they have saved to their “Watch List” and select breaking news items.

Here is a screen grab of the application’s home page:

A navigation bar along the bottom of the screen lets users switch between the home page, their Watch List, a breaking news page and links to expert investor opinions.

Fund information screens include performance data – which users can view for specific days and stretches of time – as well as a graphical chart that shows up-to-date fluctuations in funds’ values.

Here is a screen grab of one fund’s application page:

The application also lets users look at the performance of funds against different market benchmarks.

Here is a screen grab of a graphic with benchmark data:

Consumers cannot yet use the application to make trades from their mobile phones, but the application does have functionality to drive users to the point of sale.

“There is the option to ‘click to call,’ which puts people in touch with our phone representatives who can then place the deals for the caller,” Mr. Fisher said. “You can also link directly from the app to the http://www.fidelity.co.uk Web site if people wish to place a deal online outside of our call center operating hours.

“Those [users] who place deals via the click-to-call option or online benefit from our online discounts,” he said. “We are looking to add online dealing functionality to the app at a later stage.”

Fidelity is also open to extending the application to other mobile platforms, although it has not specified which ones at this time.

The application was designed with Fidelity investors in mind, as well as those individuals interested more generally in investing opportunities.

Still, the application was not developed with the primary goal of expanding the asset management company’s client base, per Fidelity.

“The Fidelity International U.K. app was developed to make keeping on top of investments and financial news on the move 24/7 easier, not necessarily to win consumers over,” Mr. Fisher said.

“Consumers can make their own minds up about whether this is an app for them, but since launch we have had over 3,200 unique user downloads, so we are pleased with initial response,” he said.

Final Take
Peter Finocchiaro, Editorial Assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.