Services provided by Square, Starbucks, PayPal and LevelUp have been cited as the frontrunners in the nascent US mobile wallet market by consulting firm Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group.

The firm assessed 20 mobile wallets from financial services, technology companies, merchants and card associations in April 2012 using the criteria of depth of payment capabilities and ease of use.

All of the apps were praised for being easy to set up and use and having the ability to attach a credit or debit card. Square Wallet was also praised for being accepted by more than 200,000 businesses, while LevelUp and Starbucks were commended for their mobile wallet rewards schemes.

The mobile wallets incorporated different transaction technologies such as NFC, QR codes and cloud-based transactions. Carlisle & Gallagher’s card and payments practice leader Peter Olynick said the “long term winning wallets” will have “the ability to use multiple transaction technologies”.

It forecasts that 50 percent of current smartphone users will use their mobile wallet for typical daily transactions in three to five years’ time.

Services from the following companies were included in the firm’s evaluation of leading mobile wallets. In addition to the four frontrunners, they were Apple, Google, Isis, Amazon, Dunkin’ Donuts, Target, Walmart, American Express, Discover, MassterCard, Visa and five of the top US banks.