Eight mobile technologies to watch

Research company Gartner has published a list of eight mobile technologies that it says will have an impact on mobile strategies and policies over the next couple of years:

1. Bluetooth 3.0,
2. User Interfaces,
3. Location Sensing,
4. 802.11n WiFi,
5. Display Technologies,
6. Mobile Web and Widgets,
7. Mobile Broadband and
8. Near Field Communication.

[Press release]

GSM Association wants mobiles to be NFC-equipped from next year

The GSM Association has said it wants full NFC functionality - the ability to use 'touch payment' systems - built into commercially-available mobile handsets from mid-2009. This would let the phone communicate with contactless readers to provide credit and debit payments, turning it into a 'mobile wallet'. The organisation says delivering mobile payment services efficiently and cost-effectively means device manufacturers need to make sure the vast majority of handsets incorporate Near Field Communications features as standard. [Press release]

Money transfer and NFC will account for half of all mobile payments by 2013

A new report from Juniper Research says mobile money transfer and contactless Near Field Communications will account for 50% of the overall mobile payment market globally by 2013. It expects the mobile payments market to move from today's focus on digital goods (such as ringtones, music, and games) to customers transferring money and using NFC features to make purchases. In addition, the overall mobile payments market is expected to grow by a factor of ten between now and 2013. This week's Mobile News podcast includes an interview with Tom Whitaker of Masabi about the ways that m-payments and m-ticketing will change the way we use our mobiles. [Press release]

Mobile transactions worth $600bn worldwide by 2013

You wait ages for a story involving NFC, then three of them come along within a couple of days. Juniper Research says mobile money transfers and purchases of digital and physical goods will generate transactions worth over $600bn by 2013; that's an increase of almost ten times today's levels. Although today's mobile market is dominated by digital goods purchases such as ringtones, music, games and infotainment, the company's report says there are three high potential markets that offer major new opportunities for the future: contactless NFC, mobile money transfer and physical goods purchases via mobile devices. Juniper Research has published reports on mobile transactions and mobile shopping earlier this year. [Source: MarketWire.com]

Japanese government promotes mobile payments

It's quite a day for mobile payment stories. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications says it's planning to work with the country's mobile phone operators to promote the use of mobile wallet services worldwide. It's backing contactless technology based on Sony's FeliCa chips, which has been used by NTT DoCoMo for three years. [Source: BWCS.com]

78% of us want to pay by phone

The O2 Wallet trial, which we mentioned in our podcast on 6th December, has revealed that nine out of ten trialists were happy using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology on a mobile phone - and 78% would be interested in using contactless services if they were available. Interest in combining the London Transport Oyster card with a mobile phone was particularly high, with 89% of trialists saying they were interested. The trial, which ran for 6 months with 500 London triallists, combined a Nokia 6131 mobile phone with Oyster and credit cards. [Press release]

2.6 billion mobile tickets by 2011

Over 2.6 billion tickets worth almost $87 billion (£43 billion) will be sent to mobile phones by 2011, according to a new study from Juniper Research. The main users of the new technology are expected to be transport and entertainment organisations, with on-screen barcodes and Near Field Communication devices both being used. [Press release]