Juniper Research has published a new report that forecasts rapid adoption of Near Field Communication services over the next three years. It expects there to be almost 300 million NFC-capable smartphones by 2014; the equivalent of at least 1 in 5 worldwide. Half all those NFC smartphones are expected to be in North America, followed by Western Europe.
By the end of next year, 20 countries are predicted to have NFC services in place. However, the report warns that business model structures still require development before NFC services achieve critical mass.
Howard Wilcox, the author of the report, said “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.”
Although NFC is often associated with mobile payments, the technology can also be used for other services such as marketing via ‘smart posters’.