Online payments made using mobile devices accounted for 27 per cent of total online payments made in Q1 2015 – up from 25.8 per cent on the traditionally high online spending period of Q4 and up a massive 39 per cent on the corresponding period last year. The figures come from payment tech company Adyen’s quarterly Mobile Payments Index, which tracks mobile payment data from web-based transactions across its customer base.
The average transaction value (ATV) of digital goods bought via tablets has surpassed the figure for desktops/laptops for the first time since Adyen began publishing the Mobile Payments Index in June 2013.
US growth
The US market showed impressive growth in Q1, with 27 per cent of payments online being made on mobile, an increase of nearly five percentage points over the past six months. This rate of growth compared favourably with Europe, which increased only two percentage points in the same period. Europe led the way overall, however, with 28.6 per cent of payments online made with mobile. Meanwhile, Asian markets have for the first time broken the 20 per cent barrier for online mobile payments.
In terms of individual markets, the UK stands head and shoulders above the global averages. In Q1 2015, 44 per cent of online payments in the UK were made using a mobile device up from 36.9 per cent for the corresponding period in 2014 – with smartphones accounting for 66 per cent of that figure compared with 64.9 per cent in 2014.
ATV rising
The Index shows that the average transaction value for the digital goods industry has risen across all platforms over the past 12 months. Digital spend online increased 28 per cent and 30 per cent respectively for desktops/laptops and tablets, but the greatest leap was over mobile devices, where the ATV rose 37 per cent year-on-year to €28.27 (£20.39). While smartphones are growing fastest, the quarter saw tablets with an ATV of €32.66 surpass desktops/laptops (with an ATV of €31.19) for the first time. 
ATV on smartphones may be lower than for tablets, but in pure volume terms the gap between spending on smartphones and tablets has widened dramatically. In March 2014, smartphones accounted for 10.9 per cent of online transactions, compared to 9.3 per cent for tablets. By March 2015, smartphones accounted for 16 per cent of online transactions, compared to 11.5 per cent for tablets – reflecting an almost 300 per cent increase in the gap between smartphone and tablet share. In the same period of time, desktops dropped from 79.8 per cent of online transactions to 72.5 per cent.
“Tablets may well be approaching market saturation but thanks to retailers and businesses focusing on optimizing the payment process for the channel, they are attracting increasing spend as consumers become more comfortable using these devices to pay for things online,” said Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at Adyen. “There has been a seismic shift in how and where people are comfortable spending money. All mobile channels in the past 12 months have experienced impressive uplift.”
iOS versus Android
In the battle of the smartphone operating systems, Apple still rules the roost, but Google and the Open Handset Alliance are closing the gap. iOS ended Q1 2015 with a 65 per cent market share of online mobile payments, down from 69.5 per cent last year. Meanwhile Android claimed 34.9 per cent at the close of Q1 2015, up from 30.3 per cent in Q1 2014. Android may be closing the gap on iOS, but the Apple percentages are much more balanced than Android across devices – in Q1 2015, iPads accounted for 47.2 per cent of iOS mobile payments, versus 52.8 per cent for iPhones, while for the same period Android mobiles made up 78.2 of the total Android payments.
