According to data revealed by Juniper Research, one in five smartphones will have Near Field Communication (NFC) technology by 2014.

Juniper Research's forecast figures suggest that there will be 300 million NFC capable smartphones by 2014 all over the world. They foresee a quick adoption of the NFC technology by smartphone users.

Juniper’s analysis shows that this growth will be driven in the short term by mobile network operators launching services in 20 early adopting countries before the end of 2012.

Their data also points to France being the leader, followed by US and UK as the markets which will see early adoption of the technology.

"Juniper's market analysis highlighted that, although there are still hurdles ahead, NFC prospects have been boosted by the succession of mobile operator and device vendor announcements," said author Howard Wilcox.

"France is a case in point where operators expect to sell one million NFC devices this year," he added.

North America will account for half of all NFC smartphones by 2014, followed by Western Europe.

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