Near Field Communication a.k.a. NFC, is not a new technology at all; it's already been implemented in several ways. From Asia to Europian countries, and from mobile manufacturers to mobile wireless carriers, many of them have tried it on. Famous mobile phone manufacturers have made some handsets that contain NFC chip inside them, the latest one is Nokia 6212 where Nokia has added Bluetooth enabled-NFC into it. Engadget Mobile got the whole details here. This means all of those Blueetooth activation, finding & pairing are done only by a simple touch or settings. Simplicity in automation, is what NFC's main attraction for mobile consumers.
You can use NFC-enabled mobile phones to communicate with NFC-tags or other NFC-enabled devices such as speakers, headphones, GPS unit, car-key, etc. Another use of NFC is as mobile payment which for example like ticketing in public transports and point-of-sale (PoS), many countries have adopted this kind of electronic payment so people in line can get faster making the transaction. Or perhaps if you see something interesting on the poster at the bus or train where you commute everyday, you can get more informations simply by waving your mobile phone in front of it.
Better yet, with NFC, phones can communicate without establishing a mobile link; bypassing mobile wireless carriers. As to what PCW Business article reported here, industry organization GSM Association has started the Pay-Buy-Mobile program last November; the idea is so mobile carriers can adopt the same platform together.
But NFC technology is not without backdraws, besides the short range it required to be able to operate; there are security issues as well. They are like eavesdropping, data modification & relay attack. Please refer to this Wikipedia explanation for further information regarding those NFC's security vulnerabilities.
Nevertheless, NFC is here and going to be another mainstream technology in the future for mobile phone. It's only a matter of time, and Palm should get their gears moving faster to adopt NFC into the next generation of Treo (and Centro too).
[blogged with my Treo 750v]