NFC Phone Market's Takeoff to Benefit Taiwanese Manufacturers

Taipei, Oct. 18, 2011 (CENS)--The declining production costs of NFC (near field communication) chips have driven more phone suppliers to develop and market NFC phones, which will benefit Taiwanese manufacturers in the segment in the coming years, according to institutional investors.

Michael Hsu, general manager of Nokia Taiwan, has confirmed the emerging trend, saying that the global market for NFC phones has started growing this year and will take off in the short term, as lower production costs of NFC chipsets have fueled the market boom.

Reacting to the coming business opportunities, Nokia has already launched six models of NFC smartphones worldwide so far this year, and recently announced its cooperation with Taiwan Mobile Corp., one of Taiwan's top three telecom service providers, on joint promotion of the NFC enabled 701 smartphone in Taiwan, which is accessible to varieties of NFC-based services provided by Taiwan Mobile.

Nokia has claimed that all its Symbian-powered smartphones to be launched in 2012 will be built with NFC functions, and its cooperation with telecom companies on joint development of NFC security services will also be enhanced.

In addition to Nokia, RIM, HTC, Samsung and LG have also unveiled their NFC phones, with Apple Inc. reported to join the competition by building NFC functions into its iPhone. Major players' growing attention to NFC phones will result in brighter market prospects in the near future. The global market researcher Berg Insight has underscored the market's growth potential with its report indicating that shipments of NFC phones are estimated to sharply surge to 400 million units in 2015 from less than 2 million units in 2010.

Taiwanese companies dedicated to NFC technology are expected to benefit from the boom starting next year. For example, Wistron NeWeb Corp. will reap considerable profits from its NFC antennas, while CipherLab Co. Ltd. will also enjoy a share of the business pie with its scanner systems.