[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Lekerstein:
I'll take it one step further:

Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimetres. Present and anticipated applications include contactless transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi.[1] Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip, called a "tag".[2]

NFC standards cover communications protocols and data exchange formats, and are based on existing radio-frequency identification (RFID) standards including ISO/IEC 14443 and FeliCa.[3] The standards include ISO/IEC 18092[4] and those defined by the NFC Forum, which was founded in 2004 by Nokia, Philips and Sony, and now has more than 160 members. The Forum also promotes NFC and certifies device compliance.[5]

Uses

NFC builds upon RFID systems by allowing two-way communication between endpoints, where earlier systems such as contactless smart cards were one-way only.[6] Since unpowered NFC "tags" can also be read by NFC devices,[2] it is also capable of replacing earlier one-way applications.

Commerce

NFC devices can be used in contactless payment systems, similar to those currently used in credit cards and electronic ticket smartcards, and allow mobile payment to replace or supplement these systems. For example, Google Wallet allows consumers to store credit card and store loyalty card information in a virtual wallet and then use an NFC-enabled device at terminals that also accept MasterCard PayPass transactions.[7]Germany,[8]Austria,[9]Finland[10], New Zealand [11] and Italy[12] have trialled NFC ticketing systems for public transport. China is using it all over the country in public bus transport[citation needed] and India is implementing NFC based transactions in box offices for ticketing purposes.[13]

Uses of NFC include:

Access Control: Replacing traditional keys for either physical access (hotel room) or control (starting a car)

Ticketing: Replacing paper tickets for social events and public transportation

Contactless Payments: Mobile payments debited from financial or MNO linked accounts

Interactive World: Marketing and exchange of information such as schedules, maps, business card and coupon delivery using NFC Marketing tags

Media Sharing: Transfer images, videos, music between mobile phones

Social media e.g. "Like" on Facebook, "Follow" on Twitter via NFC smart stickers in retail stores

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections

NFC offers a low-speed connection with extremely simple setup, and can be used to bootstrap more capable wireless connections.[14] An example of this is in Google's Mobile Phone OS Android 4.1. In order to achieve a file transfer over Android Beam (an NFC sharing service), the software automatically completes the steps of enabling, pairing and establishing a Bluetooth connection when doing a file transfer via Android Beam.[15] The same principle can be applied to the configuration of Wi-Fi networks.

Social networking

NFC can be used in social networking situations, such as sharing contacts, photos, videos or files,[16] and entering multiplayer mobile games.[17]

Identity documents

The NFC Forum promotes the potential for NFC-enabled devices to act as electronic identity documents and keycards.[14] As NFC has a short range and supports encryption, it may be more suitable than earlier, less private RFID systems.

Source: Wikipedia