A new report shows the smartphone is poised to replace the ticket as the preferred method of paying for public transit. To which we say, "duh."
Analysts at Juniper Research, a UK-based consulting firm, looked at current trends in paying by phone and predict that mobile ticketing across all forms of transit will triple in the next five years. That growth will be led by the local public transit sector, but will also include airlines and long-distance rail.
Just as airlines rapidly adopted the 2-D barcode for boarding passes, light rail and bus systems will do the same. And just as airlines use their apps to upsell lounge access, legroom and rental cars, public transit agencies will similarly cross-promote related services, say analysts at Juniper. Hey, if you're on the bus, why not buy a monthly pass? And since you're up so early, what about a coffee?
Additionally, since transit riders will already have their smartphones out, advanced ticketing apps can be used to provide embedded service updates and routing options.
Much of the growth in mobile ticketing will take place in the U.S., where cash-strapped transit agencies have been slow to adopt the smartphone as a ticket. Mobile ticketing has already taken off in some markets, with Asia rapidly embracing the tech and with over 65 percent of bus riders in Sweden paying for their trips by phone.
The report's authors also found other regional differences. Ticketing by text message will likely be more popular in emerging markets, where smartphones are less common. And in markets where Apple's iPhone is popular, NFC-based ticketing likely won't take off.
In fact, the popularity of the iPhone and its lack of NFC is considered one of the main factors why Juniper predicts that 2-D barcodes will remain more popular than paying by NFC in markets like Western Europe and North America.
