Although Australians continue to be wary of online and mobile transactions, revenue collected from the sale of digital music, tickets, games, etc. are set to reach $300-billion annually by 2013, according to a region-by-region analysis by Juniper Research.

Meanwhile, IMS Research projects 884-million mobile banking and payment users by 2012. According to the IMS report Western Europe and a number of Asia-Pacific countries (the “Far East”) will represent more than 60% of mobile transaction value by 2013, according to Juniper. Tickets for rail, air, and bus travel, as well as entertainment and sporting events are expected to become a major category of mobile purchases, representing 40% of the global transaction value within five years.

This will be especially significant for the developing economies, where the mobile penetration is far higher than either fixed-line telecommunications, or traditional banking services. International remittance providers such as Western Union for instance have acknowledged the growing competition posed by mobile payment services.

Australians however continue to remain wary of mobile banking. In this context, security service solutions consultant Unisys found 78% of Australian respondents would not use a mobile phone to pay a bill, shop or bank online. In a survey of people in 14 countries on their attitudes towards using mobile devices for making payments and banking, only the French and the British were more suspicious of the technology. It found one in two Australians surveyed believed mobile transactions were not secure.

The author of the research said that education and awareness campaigns would help convince most consumers that mobile phone payments were secure.