NFC has barely hit the market and yet many are willing to write it off as a technology to enable mobile payments. Not so fast, says Juniper Research. According to a new report from the U.K.-based research firm, NFC's future as a payment technology may be brighter than the naysayers think, and that future may not be so far off.

In a new report, Juniper predicts more than 1 in 4 mobile phone users in the U.S. and Western Europe will use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to pay for goods in stores by 2017 accounting for $180 billion in transactions worldwide. That's a big increase from the 2 percent of users paying for goods using NFC in 2012.

"NFC retail payments are still at an early stage, but hold great promise," said the report's co-author Dr. Windsor Holden. "In 2011 we saw significant strides made within the ecosystem such as the launch of Google Wallet, the announcements of more mobile wallet consortia and the supply of an increasing number of NFC-enabled smartphone models. NFC is now impacting the public consciousness and we expect a rapid market expansion from 2012 onwards.

According to the report, the reason for NFC's popularity is the "tremendous user appeal" tapping a phone to pay holds for consumers. Additionally, the report says NFC payments holds the potential for more personalized retail marketing and sales opportunities not currently present with available payment methods as well as the ability to integrate with other services and applications.

But the future of NFC isn't guaranteed, the report warns. Juniper acknowldedges that without a single point of contact to bring together the mix of mobile, financial and retail technologies required to make NFC payments work, users won't take to the service.

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