Such is the excitement about the potential of NFC, vendors are developing and launching a variety of interim solutions such as stickers and SD cards to get NFC to market faster on existing phones rather than new NFC enabled phones. NFC report author Howard Wilcox stated: „“Many people focus on the use of NFC for payments but in fact it is poised to revolutionise the way many people shop too. The ability to tap smart posters and receive coupons and product information also presents new channels to market for merchants. Whilst vendors see widespread availability of NFC phones in future, the jury is out as whether interim solutions will attract users or actually have a detrimental effect.” Further findings from the NFC research include: • First NFC devices will be shipped commercially later in 2009 and the market will ramp up from 2011. • NFC/Felica payments are already established in Japan but by 2014 North America and Western Europe will be experiencing high growth. • By 2012, NFC global gross transaction value will exceed 30bn Dollar. The Juniper Research report examines the opportunities available in both the mobile payments market and the mobile retail market (smart posters and coupons), as well as newly emerging interim solutions such as stickers & SD cards. This report features detailed six year forecasts across eight regions of the world, for shipments of NFC enabled devices and interim NFC solutions, NFC devices in use for payments, transactions traffic, NFC transaction value and coupons and smart poster ARPU until 2014. www.juniperresearch.com