A nation of mobile shoppers in waiting

Young people first in line to buying online goods and services using mobile phones

3G smartphones and high speed mobile data networks to drive mobile shopping in Western Europe

Teenagers in the 15–20 years age category today will drive mobile phone commerce over the next five years, with 2.1 billion people expected to buy goods and services online using their handsets by 2013.

Forecasts compiled by Juniper Research suggest that the value of global mobile transactions will increase by 700 per cent in the same period, though individual transactions will rarely cost more than $3-5 (£1.53-£2.56).

Music, games, tickets and infotainment services will represent the most common purchases, but will expand to include physical goods such as gifts, household products and electronics.

Western Europe and China are predicted to lead the way, partly because of better developed high speed mobile networks available in those regions, and are expected to account for 50 per cent of all mobile digital goods transactions.