Juniper Research reports that around 52 million consumers globally will adopt new mobile technologies such as NFC and other mobile payment methods by 2011. This will help drive the physical mobile payments market to $11.5 billion by the same year, according to Business Intelligence Middle East. NFC and other mobile payments methods will offer consumers a viable alternative both to cash, credit and debit cards.

Other findings from the report show that mobile payment applications and services are already available in most regions in a variety of formats where they are being adopted in either a trial or commercial mode with favorable user feedback.

The Juniper Research study also found that by 2011, around 12% of the total mobile phones in circulation will offer support for contactless payment, specifically NFC, equating to nearly 470 million NFC-enabled handsets worldwide, thereby providing a significant marketplace for retailers to offer goods via m-payment applications.

Industry players in Asia, Middle East and the U.S. are seen as particularly receptive to the idea of using RFID or NFC to facilitate mobile payments for physical goods and services. Members of the mobile payments value chain must develop a mutually satisfactory, robust business model, guaranteeing revenue to all parties.

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