The majority of respondents did not adopt NFC payments until recently, and the majority of respondents said they have been using contactless mobile payment wallets for less than two years with a high overall user experience. Based on these results, the study found that as consumers become more satisfied with the payment process, other ways of using NFC technology may follow the payment app. The survey included 2,620 respondents from North America, Asia and Europe, covering all age groups over the age of 18.

Near Field Communication is a 13.56 MHz based technology that is ISO 14443 compliant and has been used in Android and iOS based devices for years to enable contactless payments and other services without the need to swipe a card or use a QR code based camera. apple Pay and Samsung Pay are both NFC based systems. The study, conducted earlier this year, found that the increase in contactless payment usage is likely being driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the study, consumers are now turning to contactless payment methods to reduce the risk of disease transmission, said Andrew Zignani, research director at ABI Research. Also, the ubiquity and relative convenience of the technology has consumers of all ages opting for contactless payment solutions, whether using cell phones, wearable devices or contactless cards

Comparison with data from the 2020 study

More than two-thirds of respondents this year said they were familiar or very familiar with NFC technology. In addition to payment transactions, the 2022 study, conducted by a third-party company based on telephone and online questionnaires, found that 48 percent of respondents use NFC technology to pay for public transportation.

The study showed that other NFC technology transactions are less common. 38% of people use it to interact with the products they buy, while 15% use NFC for human-vehicle interaction. In addition, 14 percent of people have been granted access to NFC venues, with 13 percent of them accessing their home or office in the same way. The least common is the use of NFC to control appliances or headphones and speakers, at 11% and 10% respectively.

NFC mostly used for non-payment applications

Zignani predicts that the frequency of NFC technology use is expected to increase as contactless card payments accelerate, and Mike McCamon, executive director of the NFC Forum, agrees. "The trend we're seeing is a slow but steady evolution of NFC, not just limited to applications in the payments space." For example, he says, "buying transit tickets, moving driver's licenses, opening doors or using NFC to wirelessly charge small IoT devices."

Further promotion of NFC application areas

The two alternative application scenarios, public transportation and consumer product interaction, are expected to grow significantly with the promotion of the NFC Forum and its technology providers. Tags are already being used in luxury goods and other high-value items for authentication and customer engagement. The survey found that usage of the technology for brand engagement dropped to 38% from 53% this year, likely due to the high engagement rate of new users focused on payment transactions.

Comfort levels appear to be high when it comes to the security of attacks such as signal interception. However, ABI Research found that further messaging may need to enhance the general security of NFC transactions to provide a greater sense of security. However, Zignani said the potential for growth in the use of NFC in different applications is huge, and the NFC industry may have some work to do if it wants to increase the adoption of payment systems in a short time.

The NFC Forum is currently conducting outreach activities in application areas. nfc wireless charging and wayfinding signage are two of the key initiatives the organization is working on. The wireless charging initiative focuses on using NFC-enabled devices to become their own charging stations by charging small IoT devices such as digital pens and earbuds. The wayfinding marker, on the other hand, is an icon that shows users where they can tap their phone on the device for the best NFC connection.