Consumers are expected to purchase goods and services worth more than $1 trillion over their mobile devices between 2012- 2017, according to a report by IDC.
The purchases could include digital and physical products and services as well as direct fund transfers which don’t involve any exchange of any product or service.
Most of the purchase volume will be in the form of mobile commerce, which includes purchase of digital media on the device as well as ecommerce through a mobile Web browser.
Proximity payments will be second largest spending category, which is expected to rise on the back of upgrades in point-of-sale and mobile device technology.
Spending through point-of-sale and mobile device technology will be evenly divided during the forecast period, according the report.
Person-to-person or point-to-point (P2P) fund transfers will remain in distant third position, in absence of common standards for sending money across borders using mobile devices.
It could also be due to lack of locations for adding cash to and withdrawing cash from the system.
IDC Financial Insights expects that NFC payments though still limited, will grow rapidly during the next five years driven by handset and point-of-sale terminal upgrades.
In dollar terms, it will be just more than 2.5% of the total amount of worldwide commerce that is theoretically addressable by mobile payments.
The report also added that majority of mobile payments volume will be driven by traditional card products, either through mCommerce or through NFC.
IDC Worldwide Payment Strategies practice director Aaron McPherson said that growing prevalence of smartphones is enabling a variety of mobile payment methods, which combined are becoming a significant share of global commerce.
"We expect growth rates to continue to accelerate as consumers and retailers become more comfortable with the technology," McPherson said.
