With news of many new mobile payment services, faster networks and new features hitting us daily, it is no surprise that we are more connected than ever. And accompanying that global connection to society we have come to expect a certain level of convenience and quality. Yankee Group, a research firm from Boston, MA, has presented extensive research on the future of mobile usage and mobile transactions. Their research shows that at the conclusion of 2010, total value of global mobile transactions was at $162 billion, and they anticipate that it will be $984 billion by 2014. To supplement the research, Yankee Group conducted a consumer survey, which found results showing that, although mobile transactions are expected to increase drastically, less than 10 percent of consumers would be willing to pay extra or mobile transaction services such as mobile banking, mobile coupons and mobile payments.

“Every silver lining comes with a big, dark cloud and the explosion in mobile transactions is much the same,” said Nick Holland, senior analyst at Yankee Group. “Although mobile transaction service usage is increasing phenomenally, consumers show little interest in paying any additional fees for them. If banks, mobile operators, card networks and retailers want to tap mobile transactions as a revenue stream, they’ll need to come up with more creative schemes than per-transaction fees.”

Revenue and the opportunity for more money is always in the forefront of corporate decision makers, and this is an obvious possibility with such an explosion in transactions. Although at this point, with over 90 percent of consumers refusing to pay additional fees, attempting to exploit this opportunity could have major implications on the future of mobile transactions.

Yankee Group’s mobile transaction forecast tracks metrics on mobile banking, international and domestic remittances, contactless cards, mobile coupons and NFC communications. Other forecast findings include:

• Asia-Pacific overtakes EMEA as the mobile banking powerhouse: In 2010, EMEA leads all regions with 42 percent of worldwide active mobile banking users, followed by Asia-Pacific (38 percent), North America (16 percent) and Latin America (4 percent); but by 2014, Asia-Pacific leads with 54 percent, followed by EMEA (32 percent), North America (10 percent) and Latin America (4 percent).

• Mobile coupon usage explodes: The number of active mobile coupon users is expected to grow from 2.7 million in 2010 to nearly 35 million in 2014.

• Near field communications (NFC) takes off: The number of NFC-enabled phones will grow from just 834,000 in 2010 to 151 million in 2014, a CAGR of more than 300 percent. Similarly, the value of NFC-based transactions will explode from $27 million in 2010 to $40 billion in 2014.

[via Yankee Group]

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Vivotech NFC payment platform for mobile phones Photo: Vivotech.com

We reported just 4 days ago that you will soon have a digital wallet in your pocket, and today, Visa and Bank of America have teamed up to create the “digital wallet.” The news came via Reuters when the companies said they will run a trial service in New York for the duration of 2010, aiming to get the technology in our digital wallet as soon as possible.

Other companies in talks are Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Discover Financial Services, they intend to offer mobile payments as well, just how they will go about it is still up in the air.

Bank of America launched mobile banking just 3 years ago, and since then has seen 5 million customers conduct $15 billion in transactions, all from their phones.

Mobile payments are going to get hot in Japan and South Korea too, where KDDI and SoftBank Mobile have announced plans to release Near Field Communications technology through the countries.

Soon my friends, that ringing talking box you’re holding will also pay for your movie ticket, sandwich at the cafe, or coffee at Second Cup.

BofA and Visa to test cell phone payments [Reuters]

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With nearly 2,000 various patents under their belt, Apple has more than a few that are potential candidates for creating such a capable device.

Near Field Communication World reports that the following NFC-related Apple patent applications have come about over the past few months. As you can see, they are all mobile payment or mobile identification related:

• An NFC-based mobile payments service that lets consumers make payments to merchants and other consumers via a credit or debit card, directly from their bank account or using credit stored in their iTunes account.
• The ‘iPay, iBuy and iCoupons’ patents, describing a comprehensive mobile payments, mobile commerce and mobile marketing business based around an NFC-enabled iPhone.
• Products+, an NFC-based product marketing and promotions application.
• An airline ticketing and boarding pass application that describes an unmanned, automated airport ticketing and baggage counter kiosk and introduces the concept of an automated security checking process where users of the iTravel app could process themselves through the security clearance system and check themselves in at the boarding gate.
• The Grab & Go patent, designed to make it easy for customers to transfer files between devices such as the Mac, iPhone and Apple TV.
• An NFC-enabled iPod, games controller, TV and iPhone.
• An NFC-based concert, entertainment and sports venue ticketing application that includes exclusive bonus features for users of Apple’s service.

It’s unclear what Apple’s plans are with Vigier, but NFC is the type of technology that allows you to wave your credit card over a reader rather than handing it over to be swiped.  The possibilities are endless, “whether buying a ticket at the airport, or scanning an RFID-enabled poster for more information about a concert” said Gizmodo.

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