Shipments of NFC-ready POS terminals reached 67.2 million in 2020

The global installed base of POS terminals grew to almost 207 million units in 2020. Market growth is primarily fuelled by the increasing adoption of electronic payments in emerging markets. Developed markets are relatively saturated in terms of POS terminal adoption.

In addition, the mPOS terminal market is today growing fast and Berg Insight forecasts that the installed base of mPOS terminals worldwide will grow from 80 million units in 2020 to reach 127 million units by 2025.

Cellular connectivity has become a very popular option for POS terminals and was incorporated in 46 percent of the devices shipped in 2020. The wireless technology has an important role in facilitating the global adoption of electronic payments, as it enables the rollout of POS terminals to many new market segments and parts of the world where the fixed line telecommunications infrastructure is less developed.

The installed base of cellular POS terminals reached 89.8 million in 2020. Berg Insight forecasts a CAGR of 11.8 percent between 2020 and 2025, resulting in a total of 156.6 million cellular POS terminals at the end of the forecast period.

The market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to display strong momentum in 2020 with annual shipments reaching an estimated 67.2 million units worldwide. The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU27+3 and North America, where 96 percent of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC.

NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide including Brazil, Turkey and China. While the installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals has grown quickly, some of the terminals do still not have the contactless features turned on.

Berg Insight estimates that approximately 90.0 million POS terminals accepted contactless payments with Visa payWave, MasterCard PayPass or UnionPay Quickpass in 2020.