According to a new research report from IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to show strong momentum in 2021 with annual shipments reaching an estimated 75.3 million units worldwide.

The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU27+3 and North America, where 98 percent of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC. NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide, including Brazil, Turkey and China. On a global basis, about 80 percent of the POS terminals shipped in 2021 included NFC.

Berg Insight projects the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6 percent from 168..7 million units in 2021 to 291.9 million units in 2026. As a result, more than 93 percent of the world’s POS terminals will be NFC-ready in 2026, up from 73 percent in 2021.

“The mPOS terminal market is growing at about the same rate as the traditional POS terminal segment and there are more than 70 vendors active on the global market today”, said Johan Fagerberg, Principal Analyst at Berg Insight.

mPOS is the use of consumer-oriented mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones that function as a point-of-sale terminal to facilitate payment card transactions through a connection to a card-accepting reader. The attach rate for NFC in the mPOS segment was 72 percent in 2021 as NFC-ready mPOS terminal shipments reached 29.4 million units. Berg Insight forecasts that global shipments of NFC-ready mPOS terminals will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2 percent in the next five years to reach 50.1 million units by 2026.

Mr Fagerberg concludes:

“The growth is driven by the increase in mPOS terminal shipments from 40.9 million units in 2021 to 53.0 million units in 2026, as well as by a growth in the attach rate from 72 percent to 95 percent.”