Around two billion near field communications (NFC) devices will ship during 2017, according to new figures published by ABI research.
The figures, republished by IntoMobile, suggest that while most of the devices will be smartphones, the chips will ship in around 395 million other consumer electronics devices, including video game consoles and accessories such as printers.
The chips, currently used in touch-and-go credit cards and public transport smartcard systems such as Melbourne’s Myki, will also be used to pair (or “touch on”) devices for wireless networking, exchange data over short distances and for authentication services.
ABI estimates that up to 102 million NFC-enabled Android and Windows Phone smartphones (such as the Samsung Galaxy S3) will ship by the end of the year, with that number rising to 285 million next year.
Nine out of the 10 largest smartphone vendors currently ship NFC-enabled devices, with Apple yet to embrace the technology for the iPhone.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
