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Juniper Research: 700 million users to have NFC-enabled phones within 5 years

Categories: Research,
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 4:42 PM

Juniper Research’s new analysis of the NFC mobile payments opportunity forecasts that 700 million mobile subscribers globally will have NFC-enabled phones by 2013 that will enable them to make low value purchases using nothing but their mobile phones.

Juniper ResearchIn its report titled “Mobile Payment Markets: Contactless NFC 2008-2013,” Juniper found that there is a significant opportunity for NFC mobile payment services, chips, phones and supporting services as the market reaches its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period.

Report author Howard Wilcox argues that NFC has great potential to make many everyday tasks such as buying small value items as well as tickets much easier. “In future, users will also be able to discover new services by holding their NFC phones next to smart posters and advertisements. The Oyster card in London and the recent O2 Wallet trial results confirm the promise of NFC,” he added.

Highlights from the report include:

  • Global mobile subscribers with NFC phones will reach 700 million by 2013.
  • The market is currently dominated by FeliCa-enabled phones on Japanese mobile networks, where about 50 million FeliCa-enabled phones have been shipped to date.
  • North America, Western Europe and Far East & China will be the leading regions by 2013, with each region having annual shipments in excess of 25% of total NFC phone shipments.

However, whilst the trial results so far have been encouraging, there are two important factors that will determine the speed of market traction in the next couple of years: the availability of NFC phones; and the speed of installation of NFC readers by merchants.

The report provides six year regional forecasts of NFC mobile payments for physical goods and services, providing data on device shipments, subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes as well as detailed case studies from companies pioneering in this market… More information is available at Juniper Research’s website.

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.