Every so often, the headlines proclaim that one or more mainstay mobile marketing practices are poised to bite the dust.

But with email, SMS, and virtually all facets of mobile marketing still growing and thriving, the critics have recently turned their attention to mobile coupons.

And now they may want to focus on something else… again.

Despite similar calls for the downfall of mobile coupons, the folks at eMarketer are telling a different story today. And they have numbers to corroborate their claims.

This year, more than half of US adult internet users, or 102.5 million people, will redeem a digital coupon via any device for either online or offline shopping.

“New data indicates that there was a significant increase in the number of digital coupon users during the first half of 2013,” eMarketer reports.

As  result, eMarketer has increased its forecast for the US digital coupon audience beginning this year.

“We expect the number of people who redeem digital coupons to increase 11.0% this year,” Monday’s report reads. That’s up from their previous estimate of 4.6%.

All told, new mobile coupon users will be the primary growth driver in the U.S. digital coupon audience.