March 03, 2009 Report: Mobile Devices May Soon Replace Wallets By Vivek Naik, TMCnet Contributor
Informa Telecoms and Media recently published the precursor to a study that explores financial transaction trends via handheld mobile devices up to the year 2013 and the analyses strongly suggest that a mobile device can finally and realistically replace the wallet with all its contents such as debit, credit, and membership cards.
The main report, “Mobile Payments and Banking: Worldwide Market Analysis, Strategic Outlook & Forecasts to 2013” is due for release shortly. It covers remote mPayments, local mPayments, mBanking services, and mTransfer services by region, year and consumer demographics.
"At last there is real evidence of demand for these services, some from the unlikeliest of places such as the emerging markets of Africa and Asia. The prospects for growth and the emergence of new opportunities in mobile financial services are encouraging more players to enter the market," said John Darnbrough, associate, Informa Telecoms & Media (News - Alert) and author of the Mobile Payments and Banking report.
In 2008, approximately $72 billion mobile initiated business was accrued via an estimated 25 billion transactions made by nearly 40 million consumers, which included roughly $24 billion for purchasing games, music and ringtones.
However, by 2013, the figures could jump exponentially to $860 billion generated via 300 billion transactions made by close to 450 million consumers with 285 billion transactions, dedicated towards the purchase of physical goods and services other than mobile content on- demand. Currently, local mPayment transactions, also known as proximity mPayments or Near Field Communication (NFC), do not have much scope as only 1 percent of mobiles sold in 2008 were allegedly NFC-enabled and there is no widespread, popular recipient technology to complete an NFC payment. NFC is a technology that enables devices to wirelessly exchange data without physical contact within a range of 4 inches.
It eliminates the need for all types of plastic transaction cards and, therefore, contributes towards saving the environment. It works in the 13.56 MHz radio frequency band, has a bandwidth of 2 MHz and can support 848 kbits per second exchange of data.
Informa estimates that by 2013 more than 10 percent of all mobiles in use will be NFC- enabled, technology support to receive NFC payment will be common, and these factors should facilitate close to 180 million users to pay restaurant bills, buy tickets, pay toll fees, and buy groceries, apparel and home equipment.
In 2008, only 67 million mobile phone users accessed mBanking services, whereas in 2013 the figure could reach one billion.
mMoneyTransfer is expected to generate more than $200 billion in 2013.
The report acknowledges that while all these figures are realistic and attainable, the process to reach them will be an uphill task.
"It will require unprecedented levels of collaboration and coordination between two very different industries. There is a strong appetite for these new business opportunities but the key players - mobile operators, banks and credit card companies - must acknowledge and take advantage of each other's respective strengths, and work together to overcome the remaining barriers rather than attempt to control everything on their own," said Darnbrough.
CUS Price at posting:
$1.56 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
