Mobile Payment Magazine

Mobile Industry Predictions Report: 2012

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The Yankee Group has just released its free 17-page 2012 Annual Predictions Report, which looks into what the future has in store for the ever-growing mobility landscape.

Overview:

The world is in transition and in the year ahead, mobile will be both the protagonist and the subject of this instability. During the last five years, networks and the information they carry have plugged more than 2 billion new participants into the mobile economy. The winners in this landscape will be those players that can scale quickly and treat each user as a unique customer.

Report Highlights:

  • The mobile gold rush is global in scale a and touches all customers. In the last five years, 2 billion new users joined the mobile revolution. Looking ahead, mobile workers and consumers will embrace tablets, mobile content and personal cloud services. At the infrastructure level, the operator imperative to monetize all-IP networks will drive investment in policy solutions.
  • Asia-Pacific takes the lead in tablet sales. Yankee Group forecasts U.S. tablet sales will total 17 million in 2011 and almost 25 million in 2012. Similarly, tablet sales in all of Europe will exceed 15 million in 2011 and reach more than 26 million in 2012. And tablet sales in the Asia-Pacific region will total 20 million this year and reach almost 39 million in 2012, more than 50 percent above the U.S.
  • Diameter signaling is taking off. Yankee Group has seen significant request for proposal/request for information (RFP/RFI) activity and expects spending on IP-based Diameter signaling to more than double between 2011 and 2012—growing from U.S.$22 million to U.S.$45 million. And overall, we see the market mushrooming to U.S.$212 million in 2015, for a whopping CAGR of 57.2 percent.
  • Personal cloud services are hitting the high-growth phase. We forecast 17 percent of professionals with three or more devices will adopt a personal cloud service for online storage, backup and synching.
  • Economic woes threaten operators. Western European operators will see churn increase from approximately 2.3 percent per month today to 2.4 percent by the end of 2012, despite operators’ ongoing efforts to migrate customers to postpaid services and long-term contracts linked to new smartphone purchases. The world is in transition and in the year ahead, mobile will be both the protagonist and the subject of this instability. During the last five years, networks and the information they carry have plugged more than 2 billion new participants into the mobile economy. The winners in this landscape will be those players that can scale quickly and treat each user as a unique customer.

For more information and to download the report: 2012 Annual Predictions Report: Mobile

Belgium’s Financial and Mobile Telephone Sectors to Develop New NFC Mobile Payment System

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The Belgian financial sector and the Belgian mobile telephone companies—Belgacom, BASE (KPN Group Belgium) and Mobistar—have partnered to launch a new mobile payment system in Belgium. Currently, they are planning to develop a product that will be accessible to the public at large with a launch date in 2011.

The continuous technological improvements, the growing range of mobile telephone functions (telephone calls, SMS messages, pictures/images, internet access, etc.) and the ever increasing user-friendliness have turned the mobile telephone into an indispensable tool for all Belgian citizens. Consequently, the financial sector, which wants to give a new boost to electronic payments in Belgium, and the telecom sector have begun planning new steps forward in the payment systems space.

The aim of the partnership is for these complementary industries to put their experience, know-how and expertise together so as to offer a new standard product for mobile payments in the Belgian market. The plans focus on payments security and user-friendliness of the new product for consumers and merchants alike. The purpose is to make it possible for consumers to swiftly use their mobile as an electronic wallet for the standard payment of small amounts (maximum 25 EUR). The system will be based on the use of SMS and contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

In practice, this new and fully mobile system will allow consumers to use their mobile for paying their car park ticket, bus fare, drinks and even their online purchases. This technological innovation also creates new opportunities for merchants in the field of payments.

The new system is the result of a close cooperation between the financial sector and the telecom sector. Both sectors are convinced that the development of a standard product is one of the key factors for a fast and effective growth of mobile payments in Belgium. The new payment system is scheduled for launch in 2011.

Source: WebWire