Nearly a quarter of people around the world are now forgoing cash and cards in shops and opting instead to pay using a mobile phone, according to the latest research.
KPMG surveyed 9,600 people who own a laptop, tablet, smartphone or mobile phone from 31 countries to come up with that figure, in the tax accountancy firm's fifth annual Consumer and Convergence Report.
When you look at the UK alone, however, that 24 per cent figure drops to 10 per cent, which suggests that the UK isn't quite there with the mobile payments thing quite yet.
But we're certainly on the cusp of a mobile payments revolution here, with a number of retailers and mobile networks teaming up to offer Near Field Communication (NFC) payment points and phone manufacturers increasingly including the necessary tech in their handsets - some pundits predict that one in five handsets will feature an NFC chip by 2014.
Confessions of a phoneaholic
We might not be doing so much paying with our phones in the UK, but that's not to say that mobile devices aren't getting a work out while we shop – one in five of us scan barcodes as we peruse the high street, while a hefty chunk of us are researching shops, products and discounts from our gadgets.
eBay also revealed last week that 10 per cent of its sales now come through mobile phones in the UK; forget your sassy best friend, these days the smartphone is clearly the shopper's companion of choice.
