Mobile Payments to Reach $214 Billion By 2015, Aite Forecasts

Analysts anticipate a 68% compound annual growth rate in U.S. mobile payment volume over the next five years.

Although the U.S. has long been seen as a laggard in mobile payments, over the past 12 to 18 months, it has begun to move closer to a tipping point that will lead to the popularization of mobile payments, says Aite Group research director Gwenn Bezard in a report issued today. Factors laying the foundation for mobile payments to grow in coming years include rapid consumer adoption of smartphones, carriers' and handset manufacturers' adoption of NFC chips, consumers' continued embrace of m-commerce, and a nationwide increase in mobile banking adoption, according to the report.

Bezard predicts that mobile payments will account for $214 billion in gross dollar volume by 2015, up from $16 billion in 2010 -- a 68% compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015.

"Firms missing the signs that the market is now rapidly shifting will be at a serious disadvantage in the next few years," says Bezard. "Many organizations within the industry remain unaware that mobile payments are in a period of rapid transformation. Those that have any desire to play a role in this market must wake up now."

The report references the following firms involved in mobile payments: Allstate, Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bango, Bank of America, Barclays, Bill2Mobile, BlackBerry, Bling Nation, BOKU, Brink’s, C-Sam, Cashedge, Cellfire, Chase, Chase Paymentech, Cimbal, ClairMail, coupons.com, Coupons Sherpa, Visa’s Cybersource, Cimbal, Device Fidelity, Diebold, Discover, Eagle Eye Solutions, eBay, Euronet, Facebook, First Data, FIS, Fiserv, Foursquare, Gemalto, Global Payments, Google, Gowalla, Green Dot, Groupon, Harland Financial Services, Heartland Payment Systems, Hipcricket, iLoop Mobile, Inside Contactless, Intuit, Jack Henry/iPay Technologies, K&C, Kubra, MasterCard, mFoundry, Mobile Coupons, Mocapay, MoneyGram, Monitise Group, mopay, MyWebGrocer, NCR, NetSpend, Nokia, Oberthur Technologies, Obopay, OfferIQ, Online Resources, PayPal, Plastyc, Pyxis Mobile, Research-in-Motion (RIM), Roam Data (Ingenico), Roamware, Rocketbuxx, SK C&C USA, Square, Starbucks, Sybase, T-Mobile, Tetherball, 3i Infotech, Tier Technologies, TransferTo, TSYS, Twitter, U.S. Bank, VeriFone, Verizon, Vesta, Visa, ViVOtech, Waspit, Way Systems, Western Union, Wincor Nixdorf, WirelessLoyalty, Xipwire, Yelp, and Zong.