The market for NFC-ready point-of-sale terminals continues to show strong momentum with annual shipment in 2017 reaching an estimated 24.7 million units worldwide, according to a report from IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.

The attach rate for NFC was highest in the European Union and North America, where 90 percent and 88 percent respectively of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC. NFC was also a popular feature in many other major markets worldwide, including Brazil, Turkey and China, according to a press release about the report.

On a global basis, almost three of every five POS terminals shipped in 2017 included NFC. Berg Insight projects the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 percent from 54.5 million units in 2017 to 112.3 million units in 2022. As a result, more than 78 percent of the world's POS terminals will be NFC-ready in 2022, up from 50 percent in 2017.

While the installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals has grown quickly, the contactless technology has in many cases not been activated. This is now changing and Berg Insight estimates approximately 30 million POS terminals accepted contactless payments with Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass or UnionPay Quickpass at the end of 2017.

"The mPOS terminal market is growing faster than the traditional POS terminal segment and there are more than 70 vendors active on the global market today," Johan Fagerberg, principal analyst at Berg Insight, said in the release.