NFC, increasingly being adopted in products and will continue to grow

LONDON, UK: Building on the momentum gained last year, smartphones will continue to account for the majority of NFC shipments in 2013 as volumes jump by 129 per cent.

However, importantly for the future of NFC, this trend is set to decline from 2014 onwards as attach rates in other categories, including computing products, peripherals and speakers, digital cameras and printers, domestic appliances and automotive, increase more rapidly.

Consequently, smartphones will decline from a peak of 80 per cent of all NFC device shipments this year to less than 60 per cent in 2017 as these other product categories see greater adoption of NFC.

An addition to ABI Research's NFC Market Data is a new analysis by smartphone tier as well as by the different mobile, consumer electronics, and non-consumer device categories. This segregates the market by high-, mid- and low-tier smartphones featuring NFC.

Currently the greatest level of adoption is in the mid-tier category, where approaching half of smartphones are NFC-enabled. This is to be expected as the high-tier smartphone category is heavily influenced by Apple, which remains the notable exception for NFC adoption.

Practice director, John Devlin, comments, "Much has been made of Apple's decision not to add NFC and prioritize Bluetooth Low Energy for the time being. However, ABI Research's latest figures show that, in terms of connectivity, NFC is increasingly being adopted in an expanding range of products and will continue to grow. This has been triggered by current levels of smartphone adoption and we don't see this trend reversing."

"In addition, the volume of announcements and agreements relating to the launch of NFC-based payment services in all regions indicates that there will be another wave of interest in 2014-15. This is reflected in our forecast for SWP SIM cards next year, with volumes expected to increase by 140 per cent in 2014," added Devlin.