More than 500 million NFC-ready mobile phones will enter the market in 2014, giving major widespread accessibility to near Field Communications Technology.
According to ABI Research, the jump to 500 million NFC devices nearly doubles the estimated 285 million NFC phones shipping in 2013.
“NFC has reached the point of no return,” explains John Devlin, ABI’s practice director. “It all hinged on handsets; and next year we will see half a billion devices in the hands of consumers as [NFC] becomes more widely integrated. Up until this point banks and other service partners were holding back from committing to [mobile network operators] and it has always surprised me that they did not drive this forward themselves and invest to take charge of this market’s potential.”
ABI says that Apple remains the only handset manufacturer that is yet to ship products with NFC capabilities.
“Put simply, the OEMs have innovated and made use of the simple abilities that NFC offers to increase interaction of people, devices, and their immediate environment. This is not just in mobile — tablets, PCs and peripherals, speaker docks, televisions, cameras, gaming and domestic appliances are all increasingly incorporating NFC,” Devlin added.
