The love affair with the mobile phone will heat up over the next four years, research shows, and consumer usage of mobile coupons will see users exceed 300 million globally by 2014.

The mobile apps revolution is triggering the growth of new mobile coupon services, says Juniper Research’s new report – Mobile Coupons & NFC Smart Posters: Strategies, Applications & Forecasts 2009-2014’.

As more and more users acquire smart phones, they will want to exploit the improved capabilities of their devices with new features and services, especially when it is going to save them money. For marketers, mobile coupon campaigns sent using location based applications can be much more effectively targeted than the scattergun approach of traditional coupons.

Howard Wilcox, senior analyst at Juniper Research, explained: “We found that with the growth of smart phones, a growing number of coupon-specific downloadable apps are being launched, often linked to location based searches.  For example, when you are in the mall and you have your smartphone on you with your downloaded coupons app, then you should be able to find your way to a good offer nearby.”

However, the mobile coupons report identified a number of market constraints. For example, some users could be reluctant to share their mobile number to participate in coupon schemes due to the danger of spam and fake coupons – privacy is a concern to many. Despite this and the lack of progress on NFC (contactless Near Field Communications) coupons because of the poor availability of NFC phones, the mobile coupon usage is still set to triple over the next few years.

Further findings include:
ARPU from NFC coupons and smart posters will exceed ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) from NFC payment transactions
North America and Western Europe to be major regions for mobile coupon usage in 2014  

Details of the study can be freely downloaded from the Juniper website.