More than 140 million people will use NFC payments this year

Gartner predicts that over 140 million people will be into mobile payments services this year while mass market adoption of NFC payments is still at least four years away.

The forecast says that more than 141.1 million people will use mobile payments services in 2011, up 38.2% from 102.1 million people a year ago. Over the past year the volume of mobile payments has grown by 75.9% from US$48.9bn in 2010 to $86.1bn in 2011.

Yet, Gartner notes that the mobile payment market is growing more slowly than expected.

"In developing markets, despite favourable conditions for mobile payment, growth is not as strong as was anticipated," says Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. "Many service providers are yet to adapt their strategies to local requirements, and success models from Kenya and the Philippines are unlikely to be translated to other markets. While developing markets have favourable conditions for mobile payments, such as high penetration of mobile devices and low banking penetration, this is no guarantee of success unless service providers adapt their strategies to local market requirements."