Mobile payments to reach $86 billion in 2011

New research from Gartner predicts that 141 million people around the world will make some form of mobile payment this year, up by 38.2% from 2010.

The research also shows the volume of those transactions is set to reach $US86.1 billion, up by 75.9% from last year as well.

However, the research also notes that mobile payments aren’t taking off in several countries, especially in the developing world, citing “the complexity of the NFC” model.

“The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behaviour by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards,” research director Sandy Shen told Boy Genius Report.

“Thanks to the success of mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and the efforts in driving mobile sales by major retailers, such as Amazon and eBay, merchandise purchases far outweigh other use cases in developed markets, which include North America and Western Europe.”