Shipments of NFC-ready POS terminals reached 47.8m units globally in 2019, bringing the total to 100.4m worldwide, according to Berg Insight.

Of all POS terminals shipped last year, seven in ten included support for NFC and 62% of all POS terminals are now NFC-ready.

The global installed base of NFC-enabled terminals is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.9% from 2019 to 2024, bringing the total to 184.5m units in 2024.

As a result, more than 88% of the world’s POS terminals will be NFC-ready in 2024, Berg says.

It adds, however, that while the installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals has grown quickly, the contactless technology has in some cases not been activated.

This means that there were only about 70m POS terminals actively accepting contactless payments with Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass or UnionPay Quickpass at the end of 2019, according to Berg’s estimates.

“The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and North America, where 94% of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC,” the analysts say.

“NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide, including Brazil, Turkey and China.”

mPOS

Global shipments of NFC-ready mPOS terminals will grow at a CAGR of 12.7% in the next five years to reach 44.9m units by 2024, Berg also predicts.

“The attach rate for NFC in the mPOS segment reached 64% in 2019 as NFC-ready mPOS terminal shipments reached 24.7m units,” the analysts say.

The growth is driven by the increase in overall mPOS terminal shipments from 38.3m units in 2019 to 46.7m units in 2024, as well as by a growth in the attach rate from 64% to 96%, principal analyst Johan Fagerberg concludes.

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