Apple and Google poised to invigorate NFC market

The market for contactless payment is growing, explained Pierre Metivier from the Forum Services Mobiles Sans Contact, at the official launch of CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS 2014 in Paris. “Smart secure devices are on the rise,” he said. “The majority of these are smartphones and payment cards, but – if you add in to the mix products such as smartcars and even smart utility meters - there will be 200 billion connected devices by 2020,” adding up to a projected global internet of things (IoT) market by that time
July 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Telecoms, IT, security industries

The market for contactless payment is growing, explained Pierre Metivier from the "Forum des Services Mobiles Sans Contact", at the official launch of CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS 2014 in Paris. “Smart secure devices are on the rise,” he said. “The majority of these are smartphones and payment cards, but – if you add in to the mix products such as smartcars and even smart utility meters - there will be 200 billion connected devices by 2020,” adding up to a projected global internet of things (IoT) market by that time of $8.9 trillion. But there are challenges ahead, warned Metivier. “The Near Field Communication (NFC) eco-system is maturing and it is also quite complex,” he explained. “You need the right mobile, the right applications, the right SIM – and you need the telecoms companies to agree. It’s complicated and it’s costly.” The rise of Host Card Emulation (HCE) may be about to change that. It is both a threat to, and opportunity for, NFC, he went on. “For a start it’s an opportunity to get more players into the market, such as 493 Apple and 1691 Google, which in the long-term could be good news for the global NFC system. Maybe demand from China will push Apple, for instance, towards NFC. NFC is about proximity and that proximity perhaps gives people a greater sense of security. But it’s still complex: we have to work on simplifying it.” There are also experiments underway with prepaid cards which could yet tempt more consumers towards contactless payments, perhaps because just having 20 euros on a card at a time will feel more secure for people. There will be much more information on all these intriguing issues at CARTES SECURE CONNEXIONS 2014 in November.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The Asia-Pacific poses a multitude of ITS challenges
    May 30, 2014
    The Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland, New Zealand, provided a focus for the region’s ITS Associations. Mary Bell reports. In late April, ITS New Zealand hosted the 13th Asia-Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in Auckland. Around 350 delegates from 24 nations gathered to share and advance ITS applications on both strategic and technical levels and to discuss the differing and various challenges faced in the region.
    Read More
  • UAE: a good place for the secure connections industry to do business
    October 28, 2014
    The country of honour during CARTES 2014 will be the United Arab Emirates, which has emerged in recent years as a dynamic hub for global trade with exceptional infrastructure and enormous potential for the digital security industry. The chance to foster commercial ties with the Gulf state is one many firms will be keen to take: the UAE will be in the spotlight for many events during CARTES, reflecting its status as a place at the cutting edge of connectivity and offering great opportunities for companies in t
    Read More
  • Cooperative infrastructure systems waiting for the go ahead
    February 3, 2012
    Despite much research and technological promise, progress towards cooperative infrastructure system deployment is still slow. Here, Robert Cone and John Miles take a considered look at how and when it might come about. From a systems engineering viewpoint it looks logical and inevitable that vehicles should be communicating between themselves and with the road infrastructure. But seen from a business viewpoint the case is not proven.
    Read More
  • Cooperative road infrastructures - progress and the future
    February 1, 2012
    Robert Bertini, deputy administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, discusses the research and deployment paths of cooperative road infrastructures. High-level analysis by the US's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the potential of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure/Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I/I2V) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technologies indicates that V2V could in exclusivity address a large proportion of crashes involving unimpaired drivers. In fact,
    Read More

Highlighted Content