Pay by Bonk ?

Always love The Register's use of words http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/31/iphone_5_rumour_nfc_chip_on_the_way/ describes NFC payments as "pay by Bonk".  Also interesting to see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/31/french_nfc_paris_metro/ effort made to make the design of smart cards more interesting.
I'm still not convinced that automatic payment is really sorted in the NFC world, but transport etc. is certainly OK.

NFC where to now ?

NFC is the nearly technology at the moment. Payment systems are being pushed, but people may not really want to use their phone for everything, especially when they already have touch to pay systems. Maybe other applications like four squary sort of things ie location and presence based systems may be more appropriate, or maybe NFC phones will just be used to identify the serial number of your fridge !