Mobile revenues set to soar

NEW YORK: Revenues from mobile payments and advertising will enjoy rapid growth in North America over the years ahead, two new studies have indicated.

Market research firm Gartner suggested that the region will raise its adspend on the channel from $3.1bn in 2012 to $8.7bn in 2016 – an increase of 181% over the four-year period.

Meanwhile, US-only data from Forrester, an IT specialist, suggested that the overall mobile payments market, including both in-store and remote payments made via mobile devices, will grow in size from $12.8bn last year to $90bn in 2017. This represents an overall rise of around 600%.

Taken together, the reports point to the increasingly central role played by mobile platforms such as smartphones and tablets in the lives of North American consumers.

The Gartner report also forecast that global mobile adspend would reach $24.6bn in 2016, up from $9.7bn in 2012. Asia-Pacific, including mobile marketing pioneer Japan, will remain the number one region during this period, with spend there rising to $9.5bn, up from $4.3bn four years before.

Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner, said: "Smartphones and media tablets extend the addressable market for mobile advertising in more and more geographies as an increasing population of users spends an increasing share of its time with these devices."  Read more http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=30896&Origin=WARCNewsEmail