The information technology research firm – Gartner, Inc. on Thursday released its new research report, articulating that the number of mobile users purchasing goods and services through their mobile devices is likely to grow globally, to more than double by the end of the year 2012. According to Gartner’s research, the number of mobile users, who make payments through their mobile devices, is expected to reach 74.4 million in 2009, showing the surge of 70% from the 43 million such mobile users in 2008.

The Gartner’s research predicts massive growth in the number of mobile users who make payments through their mobile devices. The research states that the number of mobile users making payments through their mobile devices is likely to exceed 190 million in 2012, the year in which the mobile payments is expected to become mainstream activity, with more than 3% of global mobile-device users making their payments through their mobile devices.

The Gartner’s research further articulates that by the year 2012, the largest number of mobile users making payments through their mobile devices will be in the Asia/Pacific region and Japan, followed by Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, United States, and Western Europe. 3.8 percent of mobile users in the Asia Pacific region, 3 percent of mobile users in North America, and 2.5 percent of mobile users in Western Europe will be making payments through their mobile devices by 2012.

In the research report, Gartner says that “mobile payments” means paying for products or services using mobile technology including NFC (Near-Field Communication), SMS (Short Message Service), WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) – although USSD is not used in the United States. According to Gartner, mobile payments include “transactions backed by debit and credit cards, travel cards, gift cards, Paypal's online payment service and cash”.

Meanwhile, another analyst firm Tower Group yesterday released its research on mobile banking. The Tower Group research says that mobile banking will grow by five times its current level in United States by the end of 2013. The Tower Group research articulates that the number of mobile banking users is expected to reach 10 million by the end of 2009, and the number is likely to grow to 53 million users in 2013, in the United States.