Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled devices are expected to increase by 118% to reach 320 million units in 2013, compared to the previous year, according to a study by ABI.
During the first half of the year, the market is expected to surpass more than half a billion NFC devices, the report revealed.
The majority of secure elements in 2013 are expected to be driven by the increase in adoption of the embedded systems by OEMs as MNOs are expected to deliver about 100 million SWP SIM cards.
According to the report, shipments of secure elements increased to 147 million units in 2012, including 125 million NFC enabled handsets.
ABI Research practice director, John Devlin, said that the market has passed the tipping point and is being further enabled by increased competition across all areas of the market.
"There are multiple chip vendors offering a range of product alternatives to OEMs in various form factors with security and connectivity specialists all coming to the fore," Devlin added.
"As a result, attach rates are increasing, devices are reaching market, and service partners – who had been holding back due to lack of devices – are now developing their own innovative use of NFC, bringing new services and NFC applications to market."
