NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Smart card vendor association Eurosmart has confirmed its estimate that vendors shipped 350 million NFC secure elements last year, up 30% from the year before, fueled by embedded chips in Apple’s iPhones and what is probably the last significant growth spurt in NFC SIM card shipments. It predicts shipments of 550 million secure elements in 2015, up 57% from 2014, though revised downward from an earlier projection.

Eurosmart, made up of major card and chip suppliers, had in November predicted the 350-million-shipment figure for NFC secure elements, which cover both embedded chips and NFC SIM cards.

The vendor group, whose members are mainly based in Europe, in November had also predicted NFC secure elements would hit 600 million in 2015. But in its latest release, Wednesday, Eurosmart revised that downward to 550 million. The association didn't say why it cut back the estimate, though it may relate to lower than expected volumes of NFC SIMs.