http://www.fastcompany.com/1795224/2012-the-year-nfc-goes-ma...
Not to toot my own horn here, but I've got a good record in being accurate with these predictions so far ;) --http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1448851 (and in conversations with friends I successfully predicted that SRI would be the flagship feature for the next iPhone)
The spec is intended for devices which send small amounts of data with minimal power consumption, so it's well suited to things like environmental sensors and ambient displays which have historically been underutilized outside of research settings.