One in five smartphones will have NFC
by 2014

New market forecasts show rapid adoption of near field communication (NFC) services over the next three years, with at least one in five smartphones worldwide having NFC contactless functionality.

Worldwide, Juniper Research forecasts almost 300 million NFC capable smartphones by 2014. Juniper’s analysis shows that this growth will be driven in the short term by mobile network operators launching services in 20 early adopting countries before the end of 2012.

With more and more handset vendors integrating NFC chipsets, the new Juniper Research report forecasts that NFC payments and retail marketing capability via coupons and smart posters will become common amongst smartphone users in Western Europe, North America and other developed regions.

NFC Retail Marketing & Mobile Payments Report, author Howard Wilcox, gave more details behind the report’s conclusions: “Juniper’s market analysis highlighted that, although there are still hurdles ahead, NFC prospects have been boosted by the succession of mobile operator and device vendor announcements. France is a case in point where operators expect to sell one million NFC devices this year.”

NFC is attracting the attention of all
the major players such as Google,
France Telecom Orange and Telefonica,
who see mobile commerce capability as
vital.

Juniper’s report pinpoints the main revenue opportunities but warns that business model structures still require development before NFC services will achieve critical mass.

Also, North America will account for half of all NFC smartphones in 2014, followed by Western Europe, according to the report.

Wilcox added that with many entities such as banks, mobile operators, transport companies and merchants involved, service complexity is a challenge in each NFC rollout.