Mobile banking has had its fits and starts, and it has a long way to go before most consumers try it, let alone make it second nature. But let’s face it: There’s no one in the banking industry like Steve Jobs.

Jobs certainly is a master of hype, but few people have his ability – or the products like the iPhone 3G – to provoke the consumer’s imagination and turn something futuristic into something not only possible but also something they want to do today. We saw it with the iPod and iTunes, which transformed listening habits and the music industry. Now we’re seeing it with the iPhone 3G, which is creating excitement among consumers and software developers long before it goes on sale July 11.

To be sure, the iPhone is a pipsqueak if you weigh it in terms of units sold. Apple takes 10 months to sell as many phones as Nokia does in a week, for example. The iPhone is pricy. It’s still mostly a toy for the technorati. Its Internet access is still pokey. Still, the iPhone quickly became THE smartphone to own, setting the mark for usefulness, ease of use and plain old coolness.

The point is: This is about mindshare, not market share. Jobs has redefined how Americans look at cell phones and mobile devices. The iPhone is showing Americans that the cellphone no longer is just for talking, texting messages, managing e-mail or shooting photos. Instead, it’s a minicomputer capable of handling just about anything you can imagine.

Or more to the point, just about anything a programmer can imagine. The pending release of the iPhone 3G – which promises to be less costly and faster on the Internet – has unleashed thousands of programmers to write applications for the iPhone. You’ll soon see programs for everything from geolocation services to games to mobile advertising. To date, consumers have been reticent to download applications to their phones and mobile devices. But they once were reticent to download music, too, and iTunes changed that. Look for Apple’s App Store to similarly reduce the anxiety of downloading programs to cell phones and create a market for mobile programs. The San Jose Mercury News has dubbed it the “iPhone economy,” and cites a Piper Jaffray analyst who predicts it could become a $1 billion ecosystem by the end of 2009.

But even if Americans don’t flock to the iPhone, it’s having an impact. It already has changed the way mobile devices look and feel, and now it’s opening up consumers to new ways of thinking about how they can use their phones. One of the winners is likely to be mobile banking, which suffers from a lack of awareness and anxiety among consumers. Today, consumers look at the glass as half-empty and ask, “Why anyone would want to pay bills from the back of a taxi?” Products like the iPhone, though, will get consumers to view the glass as half-full and to ask, “Why wouldn’t I want to avoid late fees while on the road, beam money to my college students or abort fraudulent activity?”

When it comes to managing your money, the iPhone will create an attitude of “I can.”