NCR Corp. announced during its first-quarter analysts' earnings call that it has expanded its footprint with mobile boarding passes, a market that is growing dramatically, according to a recent report by Juniper Research Ltd., a United Kingdom-based market research company.

NCR has signed agreements with Delta Air Lines, U.S. Airways, West Jet, Qatar and other unnamed airlines, enabling their passengers to check in for their flights with mobile phones and other mobile devices, said John Bruno, NCR's executive vice president of the Industry Solutions Group.

"More than eight million boarding passes have been delivered over our platform since its launch and over one million of those boarding passes were issued in March alone," Bruno told analysts on Thursday during NCR's conference call.

Nicola Wee, a marketing specialist for NCR's Mobile Centre of Excellence in the United Kingdom, said the company's mobile ticket transactions from 2009 to 2010 grew 484 percent. Between January and May 2010 and January and May 2011, transaction numbers have increased 279 percent, Wee added.

NCR, which is based in Duluth, Ga., entered the mobile boarding pass market in 2008 with its product, which is called mobi-pass. An airline customer checks in online via the airline's website or mobile website. "The customer is then given the option to have their boarding pass delivered to their mobile phone," Wee said. "NCR offers SMS web-link or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) delivery options."

The SMS web-link and email web-link work by the passenger opening a mobile web page that displays an optimized International Air Transport Association (IATA) compliant, 2D barcoded boarding pass, said Wee, adding that NCR's patented optimization technology ensures that the barcode is tailored specifically for the make and model of the mobile phone it is sent to.

"This ensures that the barcode is scannable at security and the boarding gate," Wee said. "Mobi-pass works on almost all phones in the market today. NCR has a database containing the technical specifications of thousands of phones, allowing us to tailor the barcode to the mobile phone type ensuring scans."

NCR, which is primarily known as the world's largest ATM manufacturer, is participating in a growing market, according to Juniper's latest report, "Mobile Ticketing for Transport Markets." Within two years, the report states, one in every seven boarding passes worldwide will be delivered to passengers' mobile devices. That means there will be 480 million mobile boarding passes, a significant increase from 160 million in 2010.

Juniper Research author Howard Wilcox found that 30 airlines, including several flag carriers, are offering mobile boarding passes. Mobile boarding passes are expected to appeal to frequent fliers. The passes also have the potential of serving train travel, according to Juniper's report, which was released in March. Juniper is based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, U.K.