While this estimate is striking, I believe it speaks more to the number of people doing pre-purchase research on their phones, rather than actually buying items from their phones.

Still, ABI Research recently predicted that shoppers will order $2.2 billion of physical goods via cellphones this year, $1 billion more than last year and five times more than 2008, as reported by Dana Mattioli of the Wall Street Journal (June 11).

“(M-commerce) is a small but high-growth area in retail,” wrote Mattioli. “Regular e-commerce sales, excluding mobile orders, are expected to grow more slowly – around 11 percent to $144.8 billion this year, says ABI, while retail sales overall are expected to creep up 2.5 percent, according to the National Retail Federation.”

One thing is certain: As smartphone technology improves and allows for faster Internet navigation, more and more people will indeed be making online purchases via their phones. Most people use their phones to browse online stores simply to kill time. Think about people on long commutes on trains or buses or people waiting in long line-ups, let alone shoppers who go to buy something in a store only to find it’s out of stock.

I also believe the likelihood of increased m-commerce acceptance is the result of a larger trend: Consumers spending more time on their smartphones than on their laptops or home computers.

Wallet Phone Concept Remains Unused in North America

Two years ago, we ran an article about a Nokia Wallet Phone that allowed users to conduct payments and ticketing transactions by entering a secret passcode, like a PIN number.

Just this past March, Verizon Wireless announced that its customers would soon be able to charge up to $25 a month in online purchases to their Verizon Wireless accounts. Purchases would have to be made from Verizon-approved online stores, which include game sites and social networks.

However, as Tricia Duryee of mocoNews.net reports (May 19), “paying for physical goods – a subway ticket, a sandwich, or a new pair of shoes – with a cellphone hasn’t taken off, especially in North America.”

Duryee explains that if a user wants to charge the purchase to his or her cellphone bill, the carrier will likely take a 40 or 50 percent cut of the transaction from the retailer. “Purchases are also typically capped at $25 (as with Verizon’s monthly limit). Under these conditions, a trip to the grocery store or the mall is completely uneconomical for the retailer.”

Duryee reports that one service that has had some success overseas, called Mopay, allows users to purchase anything from tickets to movie downloads, to physical goods. But Mopay is not yet available in the U.S.

New Devices Turn Phones into Credit Card Readers

Finally, new card-reading devices allow anybody to accept credit card payments using a tiny attachment that plugs into the headphone jack on an iPhone of Android phone, along with software downloaded directly to the smartphone.

“Square, a brainchild of Twitter Inc. creator Jack Dorsey, is a potential boon to street vendors, mom-and-pop shops and even those who lend a few bucks to a friend,” wrote Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times (June 2).

“The transaction is processed through Square’s secure servers. Square charges a fee of 15 cents and 2.75 percent of the transaction amount to the person processing the credit card. That would amount to 42.5 cents for a $10 purchase,” adds Milian.

“Apps for the Palm Pre and BlackBerry are said to be in the pipeline.”

- newsletter@iQmetrix.com

* To read more about M-Commerce and Mobile Wallets, check out the following articles from iQmetrix News & Views:

New Technology: Retailers Connecting with Customers' Smartphones

Pre-Purchase Research Goes Mobile: Consumers Shift from PC to Smartphone

Nokia to Launch Wallet Phone

'Mobile Money' Increasingly Popular

Flight Check-in via Mobile Phone: Approved