$1.3 Trillion Worth of Mobile Payments by 2017, Mostly for Physical Goods, Local or Remote

It makes sense that most of the transaction value in the mobile payments business will be for purchases of physical goods, either bought locally or on a remote basis. One percent of a very big number--consumer spending--is always a big number. Four percent of a very big number, which is the percentage of total consumer purchases Juniper Research expects will be transacted on a mobile device, represents about $1.3 trillion in transaction volume.

That would be about a 400 percent growth to 2017, from current 2012 levels. Physical goods purchases   will account for 54 percent of the total value of mobile payments by 2017,  Juniper Research predicts.

Not all forecasts are so optimistic. The Aite Group projects $214 in U.S. mobile transactions by about 2015. Aite Group predicts each one of the multiple categories of mobile payments will experience double-digit growth, with a 68 percent compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015.