In The new report from Gartner indicates that in 2011, the total number of mobile payment users worldwide will surpass 141.1 million, which is a 38.2 percent increase from 2010, when mobile payment users were numbered at 102.1 million. Worldwide mobile payment volume is projected to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9 percent from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.
Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner, said, In developing markets, despite favourable conditions for mobile payment, growth is not as strong as was anticipated. Many service providers are yet to adapt their strategies to local requirements, and success models from Kenya and the Philippines are unlikely to be translated to other markets.
In developing markets conditions are favourable for mobile payments, as there is high penetration of mobile devices and low banking penetration. So mobiles become the tools for giving large sections of the population an access to modern banking. However, the Gartner report maintains that such favourable conditions are not a guarantee of success. The mobile payment services industry can take off only when service providers adapt their strategies to local market requirements.
In developed markets, companies are trumpeting the prospects of Near Field Communication (NFC) without realizing the complexity of the service model. We believe mass market adoption of NFC payments is at least four years away, Ms. Shen added. The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behaviour by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards.
In view of Gartner, the mass-market adoption of NFC payments is at least four years away. The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behaviour by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards. In developing markets, Gartner says money transfers and prepaid incentives will drive transaction volumes. In Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, these two services will account for 54 percent and 32 percent of all transactions in 2011, respectively.
Due to the constraints of mobile phones, Gartner expects Short Message Service (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to remain the dominant access technologies in developing markets.
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