Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) conducted by Crowd DNA has revealed that the mobile wallet is the concept consumers are looking forward to most.

The research, which covered 3200 smartphone users in the UK, USA and South Korea, saw that mobile wallet and mobile payments was the most appealing future concept for 74% of respondents “assuming the scenarios were possible”.

The next best popular concepts for consumers were mobile and tablet-optimised websites (69%) and ‘the cloud’ (52%).

Other intriguing results from this element of the survey included in-store product scanning (18%), video streaming on mobile (15%), ad funded mobile and tablet content (14%), and mobile as remote control (14%).

Crowd DNA also spoke to experts in the field. Matt Taylor, head of futures at O2, said that the mobile wallet space “will become increasingly contested over the next 2-3 years…the challenge is to demonstrate the benefit and not the technology.”

The research gives more hype around the mobile wallet concept, even though recent expert comments have gone against the grain.

As the Guardian reports, recent Ovum research has revealed that, of the 7,000 people surveyed who use apps, under 1% cited mobile wallets as in their three most popular apps. In comparison, 3% polled ranked mobile banking in their top three.

Elsewhere, another aspect of the research shows that 61% of Brits now own smartphones, and that UK consumers were most emotionally attached to their mobiles.

62% of UK-based respondents agreed that they “can’t imagine life without my mobile phone”, compared to 59% from the USA and 34% from South Korea. The UK is also a leader for using phones more for online than calls and texts (37%), compared to the USA (33%) and South Korea (26%).

Similarly, the UK is a leader in tablet penetration. 35% of those polled in the UK said that they used tablets daily, as opposed to the US (31%) and South Korea (15%). South Koreans however were more likely to admit that tablet penetration was going to increase in the future.

Oli Newton, head of emerging platforms at Starcom MediaVest, commented that as a society we are “now over the ‘fear factor’ of using tablets in public.” Alex Kozloff, IAB senior mobile manager, added: “It surprised us to see that the UK was actually leading the way in tablet usage out of the countries we surveyed.”

As with the wallet space, the payment space is hotly contested – take for instance Chip and PIN solutions from both Payleven, announced exclusively at Apps World, and CreditCall.

What’s your opinion on the proliferation of mobile wallets and mobile payments in 2013?