NFC Market at Almost 12 Billion Units in 2015

NFC technology is discreetly spreading across the world like wildfire. A recent report published by Semico Research is revealing that NFC growth in mobile devices, wearables and cars will fuel a 15 percent CAGR from 2014 to 2020.

But that’s not all. Smartphones will grow to represent 9 percent of the NFC market by 2020, while wearables will show the highest CAGR at 168 percent from 2014 to 2020.

Currently, Smart cards make up over 90 percent of the NFC market at almost 12 billion units in 2015, but the technology’s use continues to evolve.

NFC technology could replace the need to carry physical credit cards, turning smartphones into all-inclusive payment devices. The technology may even come to replace keys and ID badges. NFC chips and tags can also be used as a means of advertising or exchanging information on notice boards, food packaging, and the like. With this in mind, it is not surprising to see that, according to the same report, the NFC market is to ship 23 billion units in 2020.

“The smartphone market for NFC got a huge boost in 2014 with the introduction of the iPhone 6/6 Plus and Apple Pay,” says Adrienne Downey, Director of Technology Research. “Between that and the adoption of EMV payment standards, we should finally see adoption of NFC take off in the United States as it has already in the rest of the world.”

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