NFC Times Exclusive – NFC secure element shipments for 2016 will be lower than earlier forecasts by card and chip vendor trade association Eurosmart, although the group is not saying by how much.
For the first time since it started releasing estimates and projections for NFC secure elements, in 2011, Eurosmart this year has decided not to break out the NFC SIMs and NFC embedded chips as a separate category in its yearly estimates and projections and declined to reveal the figures when asked by NFC Times. (See graphic below.) This could indicate growth for NFC secure elements for 2016 is either nonexistent or fell compared with 2015. And the vendor group is not expecting strong growth in 2017, either.
The possible drop in shipments of NFC secure elements this year would be because the major buyers of NFC secure elements, Apple and Samsung, along with telcos, ordered fewer chips or cards for use as secure elements.