Report: 2.5bn mobile payments users by 2015

That 40 per cent more people paying by mobile than in 2011.

Juniper Research says Asia Pac and China will drive the growth and constitute 30 per cent of all users in four years' time. India alone will exceed 400m users.

The Mobile Payments for Digital & Physical Goods report clearly buys into the clamour around the space, which has been fueled in recent months by numerous announcements around NFC, pay by mobile for digital goods and emerging market mobile remittance services.

However, it does flag up hurdles such as fraud techniques based around PSMS and direct billing.

Juniper analyst David Snow said: "Whilst the mobile payments sector offers substantial growth opportunities, it needs to be seen by innovative players as a platform from which to develop new value added applications and services such as personalised mobile coupons, loyalty schemes, and novel augmented reality offerings."

Interested in the mobile payments space? Download ME's own premium report, Mobile Payments 2011, for an unmissable overview of developments in operator billing, pay-by-mobile, in-app payments, NFC, PayPal on mobile and much more.