Mobile payments to grow 38% this year

MANILA, Philippines - Gartner estimates that over 141 million people globally will make mobile payments in 2011, a 38.2-percent increase from last year. Global mobile payments will exceed $86 billion this year, up 75.9 percent from 2010’s $48.9 billion. Gartner is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company and is based in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. Still, mobile payments overall are not growing as fast as originally predicted, primarily due to slower than expected adoption in developing countries. Furthermore, Near Field Communication’s (NFC) complex service model has impeded adoption within developing countries. But the success of mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and the efforts in driving mobile sales by major retailers, such as Amazon and eBay, merchandise purchases far outweigh other use cases in developed markets, which include North America and Western Europe.