NXP Semiconductors is the leading supplier of chips for contactless cards and Near Field Communications (NFC) applications according to a vendor matrix of the sector from ABI Research.
Inside Contactless and Infineon Technologies claimed the second and third spots in the market research group's most recent evaluation of worldwide contactless IC vendors.

The vendor matrix focus is specifically on ICs developed for and delivered to the contactless payment, ticketing and NFC markets.

The study examined vendors' product and manufacturing innovations, their experience, leadership, and knowledge transfer, their relevance to the global market, and the breadth of their product offerings.

Under the "implementation," part of the study, ABI Research scrutinized criteria such as companies' share of the potential and addressed markets, their global sales and support capabilities, the breadth of the contactless markets they serve, and the reach of their multiregional product delivery.

Meanwhile, another market research group predicted recently that the global market for NFC solutions, which was believed to be worth around $10 million in 2007 (with 61,000 NFC-enabled devices shipped), would have a compound annual growth rate of 143 percent by 2012, and reach $877 million in revenues by that time.

According to Venture Development Corp. (VDC), NFC adoption is slow at present because it is hamstrung by a lack of supporting infrastructure, technical standards, cooperation among value chain participants and market misperceptions.

VDC noted that there is a host of different companies involved in the NFC value chain, each with their own interest, roles and business models. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to how a globally accepted NFC business model will be defined and implemented, as several stakeholders are "competing" for control of the ever expanding markets for noncash transactions.

"In a too-familiar Catch-22," said Louis Bianchin, senior analyst of AIDC/RFID Practice, VDC. "NFC device end users are limited as to where they can use it, while enterprises are not investing heavily into the technology because they feel that there is a limited supply of NFC-enabled devices and users," he added.

Source:EE Times Europe