"Report Predicts Big Growth In Contactless PaymentsLondon-based...

"Report Predicts Big Growth In Contactless Payments

London-based consulting and publishing firm IDTechEx has issued a report predicting huge growth over the next decade in contactless cards and phones that can be waved past readers in payment, ticketing and identification applications. The report says the value of contactless cards, readers and related systems sold in 2007 will be just under $3 billion and will reach $3.6 billion by 2017. Authors Peter Harrop, Ning Xiao and Raghu Das predict there will be 40 million contactless payment cards issued in 2007, of which 20 million will carry such leading brands as Visa and MasterCard, while others will be bank-backed stored value cards. The leading example of the latter, they say, is the Edy contactless card in Japan, with millions of cards in circulation. A forecast from smart card vendor association Eurosmart this month put the figure of contactless payment cards and tokens at about 20 million for 2007. This may not have included Edy or other contactless cards issued in Japan. The IDTechEx report predicts that phones equipped with Near Field Communication technology, a short-range wireless technology compatible with the contactless payment cards and readers rolling out worldwide, will start appearing in large numbers next year. They predict there will be 29 million NFC phones sold in 2007, rising to 600 million in 2017. This latter projection apparently includes contactless wallet phones in Japan, which do not now support NFC. While these phones will be widely used for payment and ticketing, they do not foresee all phones ever carrying NFC technology, as such developing nations as China and India will continue to demand large quantities of low-cost, no-frills mobile handsets. (2006-11-27)"