Mobile Remote Payments Activity Doubles

Mobile payments, especially of the "remote payment" variety, have more than doubled over the last year, and are used by 33 percent of consumers surveyed by IDC Financial Insights. Of those consumers that had made a mobile payment, more than half used PayPal Mobile (56 percent), with Amazon Payments and Apple's iTunes service statistically tied at about 40 percent. 


For the most part, that activity was centered around purchases of virtual goods on a remote basis, especially digital downloads of apps and music. Still, IDC notes, more respondents reported buying physical goods with their phones than online services, digital goods, or virtual currency, IDC reports.