NFC didn’t really break through in the market. Not yet, not ever, I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that Apple is betting on Bluetooth LE, something their devices already have. I could see that work out.
Don't you wonder that the reason it didn't break the market was because iPhones never shipped with it. Same as QR codes, no default app to use them = poor adoption of the technology.
In my mind, NFC has always sort of felt like a clunky way of imposing a physical constraint on what should be a purely electronic transaction.