Near Field Communication Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The near field communication market is expected to register a CAGR of 17% during the period of 2020-2025. The near field communication (NFC) market is expected to increase due to the number of smartphones that are increasing gradually year by year and rising growth of the home healthcare and remote patient monitoring equipment. Moreover, increasing acceptance of contactless payments and authentication​ is further driving the market growth.

• With very little knowledge about the underlying technology, the end-users of NFC can use the technology. The communication initiates automatically by simply bringing two devices or a device and a tag, respectively, physically together. Therefore, NFC is well suited for mobile payment and ticketing scenarios.
• The Peer-to-Peer mode offered by NFC can not only be used for seamless money transfer between persons, but also for exchanging other forms of data. The Android OS provides a feature called Android Beam. Android developers can implement this option to transfer videos, pictures, websites, or other data by simply holding two appropriate phones together.
• Moreover, one of NFC's significant advantages is that the technology is compatible with existing RFID infrastructure, contactless smart cards, and RFID tags. Also, there is no more strict distinction between reader and transponder in the NFC technology in contrast to conventional RFID systems.
• The near field communication can be extremely beneficial in the modern era of technology. The mobile industry will contribute USD 4.8 trillion to world GDP in 2023, according to GSMA. As per Ericsson, this growth will be spurred, in part, by seven billion smartphone subscriptions by 2022 with NFC as a key enabler because it provides consumers the necessary ease of use and convenience, making it a useful, universal technology.
• NFC-assisted mobile health monitoring, which applies to the prevailing mobile communication methods and cloud, to provide feedback decision support, has been considered a revolutionary approach to improving the quality of healthcare service while lowering healthcare costs. Mobile handset manufacturing companies are increasingly integrating NFC hardware in their phones, by which it is gaining traction in the field of medical devices and electronic health records.
• However, due to COVID-19, digital payments surged and has become a necessity. Payment companies saw a new record of new sign-ups and increased volumes on online channels as the pandemic disrupted traditional payment methods. These instances are likely to fuel market growth.

Key Market Trends

Healthcare Industry Offers Potential Growth

NFC offers multiple advantages in the field of medical applications as well. A promising approach proposes various health monitoring methods and recording of patients' health status by using NFC. Patient monitoring through NFC, which includes ideal technology for medicine for patient monitoring, such as smart sensors, which measures patients' physical condition, transmits the data to nearby monitoring devices, mobile networks, and medical professionals for monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, increasing wearable technology is further boosting the market growth as NFC also finds substantial applications in modern wearables.

• Solution for patient monitoring can be standard or customized to get personalized treatment and secure medical data. Hence, many companies are designing customized NFCs for patients. NFC tags provide secure physical access for tracking patient data. Home monitoring by NFC-enabled devices is increasingly used, and thus, medical data can be transmitted to the physician.
• NFC's innovations in patient monitoring are "MiniME," which is a biometric device developed by Ergonomi design monitors, with parameters like ECG, blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and many other features transmit the data using NFC cloud. Similarly, Impak Health has developed home-based cardiac, pulmonary, and sleep monitoring devices and incorporated NFC in "Rhythm Track," which tracks ECG and sleep cycle. Furthermore, the increasing number of innovations in NFC has led to the development of technology.
• The rapid development and adoption of information technologies are changing the medical sector globally. For instance, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated the safety, effectiveness, and security of the medical devices in the country. Therefore, Near Field Communication in healthcare is expected to have the largest share in the United States.

North America Holds Significant Market Share

North America is expected to dominate the market, followed by Europe due to the presence of advanced technology and many global players. Most North America payments are made through an app or by using a special SIM card that is equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology. The SIM cards are enabled with the fastest and most stable internet connections to assure that payments are seamless when connecting to NFC terminals.

• Also, mobile phone manufacturers across the US and Canada are making it easier to access the mobile payments technology by including it in all new mobile phones and making the applications work across all available mPayment solutions.
• NFC Forum, a leader in developing NFC technical specifications for more than a decade, is committed to the sustained development and deployment of NFC technology across North America to support the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). With the aid of their dedicated testing laboratories in North America, they are authorized to evaluate and certify technologies for compliance.
• The US population has taken considerable measures toward medical data security. Medication errors are increasing in the United States and can lead to increased harm to patient's health, healthcare utilization, and costs. NFC reduces medication errors and potential adverse drug events (ADEs), thereby driving the market's growth in the region.

Competitive Landscape

The near field communication market is moderately competitive, and several global players, along with the local companies, are involved in this market. The companies are leveraging strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and increase their profitability. With the growing innovation, it is expected that few small to mid-sized companies will also enter the market studied in the near future. Some of the recent developments in the market are:

June 2020 - NXP Semiconductors, Mastercard, and Xiaomi Inc. announced about bringing more convenient and secure contactless experiences to Russia as the first phase of a European-wide roll-out with NXP’s mobile wallet solution. Powering mobile payments for Xiaomi’s Mi Smart Band 4 NFC wearable devices, NXP’s mWallet 2GO supports an accelerated roll-out across Europe by addressing OEMs’ needs for easy, yet secure and scalable, wallet implementations.

• April 2020 - Infineon Technologies AG completed the acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. With this, the company can offer its customers the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio to link the real with the digital world and shape digitalization, one of the most important global trends.

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