However, Shen said USSD banking would not be acceptable in the US as mobile operators have never made use of this for customer services and users may find it very awkward to work with.

And in terms of both number of users and transaction volumes, Gartner expects Asia-Pacific and Japan to maintain a larger share of the market through 2012. While mobile payment penetration in Western Europe is expected to rise from 0.9% in 2009 to 2.5% in 2012, and from 1.7% to 3% in North America; penetration in Asia-Pacific and Japan will rise from 2% in 2009 to 3.8% in 2012. Mobile payment penetration in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America is also expected to exceed 3% by 2012.