For the second consecutive year, Sybase 365 polled mobile industry experts from across the globe GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, to uncover their thoughts on leading trends such as widespread adoption of NFC.

According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents believe that NFC will not become a driver of widespread adoption of mobile payments for at least another two to five years. Less than 10 percent of survey respondents think NFC mobile payments will become main stream within the next year.

Another key finding from this year's survey highlighted consumer perception of mobile payment security and how it will inhibit the growth of mobile payments. Thirty-eight percent of survey respondents believe that consumer concern over security of personal financial information exchanged during mobile transactions will be the leading obstacle to large-scale adoption of mobile payments.

"Mobile payments are arguably the leading topic of discussion in the mobile commerce ecosystem," said John Sims, President, Sybase 365. "With our extensive global experience in innovative mobile commerce deployments, Sybase 365 has been defining consumer best practices and fostering acceptance of all mobile payment channels. As the ecosystem further develops and matures, we will continue to enable collaboration and communication between mobile operators, financial institutions, and enterprises to drive mass-market adoption of mobile payments."

Equally important to facilitating the widespread adoption of mobile payments is the need for coordination among key mobile commerce stakeholders and the development of mobile payment standards. These two concerns were cited by 38 percent of global survey respondents. This finding echoes the sentiment from the 2011 Sybase 365 Mobile World Congress survey, which found that nearly 50 percent of survey respondents believe that industry standards and coordination would be responsible for driving mobile payments globally.

According to 26 percent of the survey respondents, mobile operators will be important catalysts driving global widespread adoption of mobile payments, while 24 percent believe that banks will be a leading driver, and another 19 percent believe that companies like Amazon, PayPal or Groupon will encourage great adoption. NFC technology will help facilitate the future growth of mobile payments, but successful and more established methods such as remote mobile payments are driving deployments and adoption within the ecosystem in both the emerging markets and developed world.

"Material advances for mobile payments will only come about when banks, operators and retailers can converge on a business model, and with it true industry interoperability, leading to a widely embraced mobile payments system," added Sims.