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If you thought Idea Cellular's new green campaign-showing a man waving his cell phone to show his boarding pass on a flight-was a bit of an exaggeration, you might like to reconsider. A recent report from Juniper finds that 15 bn tickets will be delivered to subscribers' mobile devices worldwide by 2014, compared to just over 2 bn this year.
Mobile tickets are not very new to the developed world. Some rail companies in the UK already use the system and in countries, like Japan, where mobile technology is more advanced, it's already utilized across a wide spectrum of industries including entertainment, retail, and transport.
Mobile tickets not only reduce the costs associated with paper-based distribution, mobile ticketing campaigns can be executed more quickly with cancellations and re-issues handled almost instantaneously.
The new mobile ticketing report found that services are developing fastest in the transport sector, with SMS, bar code and, increasingly,
application driven services being offered by rail and metro companies and airlines.
The potential of mobile ticketing does not stop there. Major cinema chains, concert organizers, and sports teams are latching on to the commercial viability, which is driven by both cost savings and up-sell revenue potential, not to mention the convenience for users.
There are also new entrants from a variety of angles such as applications start-ups and
mobile commerce providers, seeking to grasp the opportunities they can see.
Based on the number of mobile tickets delivered, Western Europe will be the leading region in 2014, taking over from current leader, Far East and China region. However, a number of challenges must be overcome surrounding business models and coordinating ticketing schemes across multiple operators.
The report identifies a number of key drivers such as cost-saving and reduced impact on the environment as well as considering a number of challenges to the development of the market, including the lack of near filed communications enabled handsets.
In emerging economies like India,
NFC will play an important role. Pilots on NFC are on in India. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has plans to deploy NFC ticketing.