According to Gartner, the mobile payment industry will continue to experience steady growth and is expected to increase 70% in 2009 or a total of total 73.4 million users. The figure is up 70.4% from 2008 when there were only 43.1 million users.

Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner, said the forecast is based on the momentum in the mobile payment market gathered last year. Examples are the number of high-profile launches of mobile money transfer services in multiple markets, participation of major global institutions in near-field communication (NFC) payment trials, as well as new payment solutions entering the market.

Yet despite the positive projections, Shen noted security concerns, an inadequate "ecosystem" and undefined areas in banking regulations remain as challenges for mobile payment.