Blinkered thinking holding back mobile NFC

450 million units will ship in 2011

NFC phones are having a harder time becoming tech's next big thing than many thought.

Analyst house ABI Research has reduced its shipment forecast for near field communications (NFC) devices, typically used for contactless payments, citing operators' confusion over the business model for NFC-enabled phones.

ABI now predicts that 450 million units will ship in 2011, making up 30 per cent of all phones sold that year.

Further reading…

♦ Cheat Sheet: NFC and contactless payments

Operators, the analyst said, have yet to come up with new services to tap the extra functionality provided by NFC and are focusing too heavily on the contactless payment element of the device.

Banking, ticketing and access control are some services that the research company believes will take off.

So far, Europe has seen limited rollouts of the technology, including a deployment in the German city of Hanau, where commuters can use their phones to pay for bus tickets.