Global sales of NFC-compatible handsets grew 300 per cent in 2012, according to a report by Berg Insight, reaching a total 140m units sold.

Berg forecasts shipments to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 48.2 per cent, reaching 1bn units by 2017. 

“It is the sum of many possible use cases for NFC, rather than one single killer application that make the technology compelling for smartphone vendors already today,” said Berg senior analyst André Malm. “Once developers gain experience with NFC, and get access to a larger installed base of compatible handsets, we can also expect to see entirely new use cases not yet imagined.”

In 2012, the top ten OEMs released between them nearly 100 NFC handsets – most notably the Samsung Galaxy S3, which accounted for around 40m of those sales all by itself, based on figures released by Samsung.

This growth is most likely driven by the devices themselves, rather than the appeal of NFC. Its worth noting that Gartner recently cut its mobile payments forecast for 2013 due to the lacklustre adoption of NFC payments.