> I'm not doubting that certain markets in major Asian cities have seen NFC rollouts. But I question a) the scale and b) the public reception. Indeed, since smart phones are still catching on in major markets in many Asian markets I am doubtful of how wide-spread NFC adoption actually can be.

The strength of phone NFC seems to be that it's basically a "smart card on your phone," and smart cards as a payment method are extremely common in places like Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc., largely driven by their ubiquity in the form of mass-transit cards (Suica, Pasmo, Octopus, etc).

Far more people have smart cards than have smartphones in these places, and so offering smart-card-compatible NFC functionality on phones seems a no-brainer.

The result of this is that NFC-on-your-phone has worked for ages in Japan, on all types of phone ("smart" and otherwise, except the iphone), and as it uses a widespread existing infrastructure, there's no real issue with availability.

In other words, NFC is not something that's dependent on smartphone popularity for success; rather smartphones with NFC are simply trying to take advantage of an existing successful system to become more popular.

As for the question "do people use it?" I can't refer you to any "stories" but I can say that I personally see lots of people paying for stuff with their phone.... [The main issue with smartphones seems to be that the iphone doesn't support NFC, and lots of people have iphones...]

Every single person I know here in Tokyo -- except the iPhone users -- has a cellphone which can can be used to go through ticket gates to board trains, purchase items at convenience stores, and dispense things from vending machines.

Purely anecdotal, granted, but you asked for stories.

(Personally, I use an iPhone with a Pasmo NFC card duct-taped to the back of it.)

Are these the typical long/skinny phones? Curious if these are still prevalent. Last time I was in Tokyo was New Years 2009.

A lot of people still actually use those, but you definitely do see a lot more flat touch-screen 'smartphone' designs lately.

But all kinds of phones have NFC and can be used for trains and buying stuff.

As erohead mentioned, the Octopus card is extremely successful, though it's limited to Hong Kong only.

Train stations in mainland China use something similar, though I'm basing this only my experience with one city, but a big one at that (Guangzhou).

Part of the reason why you aren't finding more accounts of successful NFC rollouts in Asia might be because you aren't searching in the local languages.

Octopus cards are incredibly cool in HKG (RFID, of which NFC is a subset). Store some cash and you can use the MTR or buy things from 7-11 super easily. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card Once you try it, you wish North America woke up...