Haiti Donations: A Turning Point in Mobile Commerce?

[Commentary] Consumers have been slowly warming to the idea of zapping money through the air for years, from mobile banking to online shopping to purchasing mobile apps themselves.

In fact, some analysts say that this year will be the year of the start of a mobile commerce tidal wave. Gartner predicts mobile app revenue will hit $6.7 billion this year, up from $4.2 billion last year, and the trend will continue to almost $30 billion in 2013. Gartner's top 10 mobile consumer app areas for 2012 are: money transfer, location-based services, mobile search, mobile browsing, mobile health monitoring, mobile payment, near-field communication services, mobile advertising, mobile instant messaging, and mobile music. Two of these top ten app areas-money transfer and mobile payment-directly relate to mobile commerce.