NFC, that’s the big buzzword du jour, and it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future according to a new report by Juniper Research.

According to the company, one in five smartphones will have NFC in them by 2014 thanks to Google's move in the last six months to make the technology popular.

So how many is one in five? According to Juniper, it forecasts almost 300 million NFC capable smartphones will be in use by 2014. 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.

With more and more handset vendors integrating NFC chipsets, the new Juniper Research report forecasts that NFC payments and retail marketing capability via coupons and smart posters will become common amongst smartphone users in Western Europe, North America and other developed regions.  

If that’s going to be the case though, handset makers had better get their socks on, currently there is only a handful of NFC ready devices from Samsung, like the Samsung Galaxy S II, and Nokia on the market, with company’s like LG, RIM, HTC, HP, Apple and Sony Ericsson all to announce NFC touting smartphones.

Not that that is stopping company’s either professing their love for the technology or rumoured to be bringing into the next generation of models – iPhone 5 anyone?

And where will all these NFC phones be? North America will account for half of all NFC smartphones in 2014, followed by Western Europe says the report.