File last year's Juniper Research forecast for NFC payments under "never mind." The U.K. research group has issued a new forecast for the growth of NFC and they've scaled back their estimates from $180 billion in NFC transactions to $110 billion by 2017.

According to the report, the main reason for the lowered expectations is Apple's omission of NFC from its recently released iPhone 5. The impact of that decision will affect NFC adoption in North America and Western Europe particularly, Juniper said.

"While many vendors have introduced NFC-enabled smartphones, Apple's decision is a significant blow for the technology, particularly given its previous successes in educating the wider public about new mobile services," said Dr. Windsor Holden, the lead author of the report. "Without their support, it will be even more difficult to persuade consumers — and retailers — to embrace what amounts to a wholly new means of payment."

The report notes that estimates for the number of NFC-enabled smartphones on the market will be only marginally below previous estimates. However, reduced retailer and brand confidence in the technology and a consequent reduction in point of sale devices supporting the technology will have an impact on the value of transactions made using NFC. The end result, according to Juniper, is a "two year lag" on its previous forecasts due to a delay by retailers to invest in NFC POS devices.

The new forecast, at least in the U.S., is also based on lower-than-expected adoption of Google's mobile wallet as well as the delay in getting Isis' NFC-enabled mobile payment product to market.

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