Contactless Cards: Listening for a Heartbeat

Contactless cards have been teetering on the edge of the debit card market for the past decade. Merchant acceptance is far from ubiquitous. Issuers "attempts to quell consumers" fear of account data being stolen appear to be ineffective. Mobile payments and contact-based smartcard technologies stand poised to kick contactless cards to the curb. With all this downward pressure, do contactless debit cards stand a chance, and what does this mean for up and coming NFC payment types?