One in every eight mobile users worldwide will either have a ticket delivered to their mobile phone or buy a ticket with their phone by 2015, equating to over 750m users, according to the latest analysis from Juniper Research. The figure compares with approximately 1 in 20 using mobile ticketing now, which equates to 230m users. Ticket delivery will be by SMS, barcodes, mobile web, apps and NFC.

Whilst mobile ticketing users are currently concentrated in a number of early adopting transport schemes in Japan, Central & Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, the report, Mobile Ticketing Markets: Analysis, Strategic Opportunities & Forecasts 2011-2015, states that opportunities for mobile ticketing will spread right across the transport, sport, entertainment and events sectors.

The report pinpoints the next two years as the key period in which mobile ticketing will transition from a minority experience to become mainstream, as the mobile plays an ever-growing role in all aspects of airline travel, rail travel, festivals and cinemas.

“Mobile technology is moving the ticket machine into our pockets,” says report author, Howard Wilcox. “Our research demonstrated that mobile ticketing will change the way that many people buy and obtain their regular, everyday tickets that are mostly printed at the moment. We foresee strong acceptance driven not only by airlines, but also cinemas and some sports events: bar coded boarding passes are a clear case in point.”

The report includes five year forecasts for all the key market parameters, including users, transactions and values for transport, sport and entertainment ticketing. Additionally the report highlights conclusions from an analysis of 24 vendors addressing the market, culminating in a new strategy positioning matrix.

There’s more information about the report here.