Adyen, a global payments technology company, in its quarterly Mobile Payments Index revealed a surge in mobile payment share of online transactions, marking the first time mobile payments have accounted for more than a quarter of global online payments since the company started publishing the report in June 2013. 

"Across all industries including retail, gaming, ticketing, and of course digital goods, we see the emergence of successful businesses offering a mobile-only experience," Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer of Adyen, said in a statement. "For many companies, mobile is now the primary sales channel, rather than simply a key sales channel, aided by the accelerated growth of mobile payments globally in the last quarter of 2014. A ‘mobile-first’ strategy is becoming a reality for more businesses as we move into Q1 2015." 

In fourth quarter 2014, 25.8 percent of global online transactions took place on a mobile device, which is 11 percent higher than Q3 2014 (23.3 percent), and 37 percent higher than Q4 2013 (18.8 percent). December showed the highest proportion of mobile payments at 26.6 percent, followed closely by November at 26.1 percent. This end-of-year spike suggests that shoppers are more likely to make purchases on mobile as the global peak shopping period hits in November (Single’s Day in China, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. and globally), and December (the Christmas shopping period), according to a press release about the index.

In the battle of the brands, the iPad maintained a slight lead at 34 percent of mobile transactions, with the iPhone at 32.3 percent, and Android phones at 25.3 percent. This is dramatically different from Q4 2013, when more than 40 percent of mobile transactions were on iPad, compared to 32 percent on iPhone, and just 20 percent on Android phones, according to the report. Adyen believes that if the current trends persist, Android may surpass the iPhone and iPad in the latter half of this year and the iPad is likely to lose its lead over the iPhone in the near future.

Smartphones continued to pull away from tablets as the preferred mobile device, with 58 percent of mobile transactions made on smartphones and 42 percent on tablets. This continues the trend from previous quarters — in Q4 2013, the split was approximately 53 percent on smartphones versus 47 percent on tablets. Adyen believes this surge correlates with a global trend toward larger screens on smartphones.

However, tablet transaction volume is still growing overall, with 10.8 percent of global online transactions in Q4 on tablets compared to 10 percent in Q3.

Similar to findings from previous mobile payments Indexes, smartphone transactions accounted for about 20 percent of all online transaction for digital goods (including games, tickets and services such club memberships, hotel and reservations), and tablet transactions accounted for just 7 percent. Retail goods (such as clothing, furniture, appliances and groceries) are reversed, with smartphones accounting for less than 10 percent of retail purchases, and tablets accounting for 19 percent of purchases. This indicates that shoppers still prefer to buy physical products on tablets, but gravitate to smartphones for online services.