Shipments of NFC-ready POS Terminals Reached 47.8 million in 2019

The global installed base of POS terminals grew to almost 161 million units in 2019. Market growth is primarily fuelled by the increasing adoption of electronic payments in emerging markets. Developed markets are relatively saturated in terms of POS terminal adoption.

Cellular connectivity has become a very popular option for POS terminals and was incorporated in 44 percent of the devices shipped in 2019. The wireless technology has an important role in facilitating the global adoption of electronic payments, as it enables the rollout of POS terminals to many new market segments and parts of the world where the fixed line telecommunications infrastructure is less developed.

The installed base of cellular POS terminals reached 66 million in 2019. The analyst forecasts a CAGR of 9.5 percent between 2019 and 2024, resulting in a total of 103.7 million cellular POS terminals at the end of the forecast period.

The market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to display strong momentum in 2019 with annual shipments reaching an estimated 47.8 million units worldwide. The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and North America, where 94 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.

While the installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals has grown quickly, some of the terminals do still not have the contactless features turned on. The analyst estimates that approximately 70 million POS terminals accepted contactless payments with Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass, or UnionPay Quickpass at the end of 2019.