In the eternal wheel of IT nothing is ever new. NFC is just IRDA without line of site problems. As if that was the main user problem with IRDA LOL thats probably the only thing that wasn't broken with IRDA. Everything is playing out exactly the same way, as it always does.

I would be willing to bet, in the eternal rotation of the IT wheel, that the next revolution will be something very much like IRDA in your google glass glasses.

Of course it'll be hampered by incompatibility, relatively low uptake, unreliable software, insecurity, probably only supported by certain platforms, and probably an awful and difficult to use UI, so it'll die out. To be replaced by more or less identical short range RF "solution" (and guess how that will turn out?)

There's no reason short range IR or RF can't work at the hardware level. No reason a unified, generic, stable standard can't exist. Other than the whole, lack of need thing.

Look how well bluetooth and wifi work using basically the same technology... because they solved actual problems.