The gross transaction value of mobile payments for digital goods, such as music and games, and physical goods, such as books, is forecast to exceed $300bn worldwide by 2013.

The figures, released by analyst house Juniper Research on Tuesday, found that there is a significant and immediate opportunity for mobile payment services, systems, software and supporting services to underpin the processing of these payment transactions.

Juniper analyst Howard Wilcox said, “Merchants in North America and Western Europe are just starting to realise the potential of a mobile web presence as a fourth channel to market. Retailers should be evaluating the benefits of the mobile web, and be mindful of the success of regular ecommerce sites in generating sales. They need to move quickly to exploit the opportunity presented, and ensure that they maintain ease of use for their customers who are already familiar with web shopping from their PCs.”

Wilcox said that mobile ticketing services are expected to deliver around 40 per cent of the predicted global transaction value by 2013, driven by consumer usage on rail, air and bus networks as well as sports and entertainment events.

Also, the Far East and Western Europe will represent over 60 per cent of the $300bn spend overall, within the forecast time frame. Wilcox claims that while Western Europe is already comfortable with digital goods and services sold via SMS, the Far East and China region, as well as Japan, is already well established in physical sales of goods over the mobile web.

However, the research goes against the grain of findings from security specialist Unisys, which suggests that consumers remain wary of using their mobile phones as payment mechanisms, driven by concerns over security. Of more than 13,000 mobile subscribers from 14 countries surveyed in March, 71 per cent said that they would not consider using a mobile device to bank or shop online.