Contactless technology is rapidly growing in adoption for all types of payment and ticketing systems. According to Eurosmart, 630 million secure contactless cards were shipped in 2008 alone and we have seen the number of trials for near field communication (NFC) products grown exponentially since the late 2000s.

When it comes to NFC-capable devices, ABI Research estimates that nearly 35 million NFC enabled handsets shipped in 2011, and nearly double that number will find their way to market in 2012.

Credit card companies are starting to issue contactless products and major cities are rolling out contactless mass transit cards. Governments safely use contactless technology to secure passports and other ID documents for citizens, while corporations provide employees with contactless cards to secure access to facilities, networks and more. 

Market research firm Deloitte has released its predictions for the telecoms sector in 2012, which include a few caveats regarding NFC payments.

According to Deloitte, many people are still uncomfortable with the idea of paying with their phones due to concerns over security and the battery draining aspects of NFC – a perception service providers are going to have to overcome before widespread adoption can happen. 

Visa Europe is anticipating a big year for contactless and NFC payments, with issuance projected to leap from 30 million in 2011 to 50 million in 2012.

2012 will also see the launch the company’s first NFC-enabled mobile payments services, along with the debut of its new e-commerce digital wallet service in the latter half of the year. 

Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile operator, has announced the launch of its Cep-T Cüzdan NFC mobile wallet application on BlackBerry Bold 9900 smart phones.

Turkcell subscribers with NFC-enabled Bold 9900s can now use the mobile wallet service to make contactless payments at any MasterCard PayPass-enabled point of sale across Turkey, as well as abroad. 

Microsoft is requiring that all NFC-enabled PC’s and tablets running on the Windows 8 operating system be marked with a special NFC insignia, according to NFC Times.

The marking will indicate to users where the NFC chip is embedded in the device, thus making it easier to tap two tablets together to share information or pair an NFC phone or other device with a PC. 

McDonald’s and Barclaycard are gearing up to launch NFC awareness campaigns aimed at spurring the adoption of contactless payment technology, according to MarketingWeek.

Barclaycard, which holds the highest share (71%) of the UK contactless market, reports that contactless transactions have doubled in the last year, but are still “nowhere near” where they want to be, according to Tom Gregory, Barclaycard’s head of digital payments. 

Swedish mobile operators Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 have formed a joint venture to offer a unified mobile wallet service. Operating under the name “4T,” the partners plan to deliver a mobile payments service that can be used on all handsets regardless of the cellular network.

Based on technology from Accumulate and PayEx, the service will offer mobile payments at the point of sale, online, peer-to-peer transactions, and man-to-machine (M2M) payments for vending machines and parking meters. The service is also configured to support NFC when the technology becomes available.