A terminal includes: a near field communication (NFC) reading unit to acquire tag information via NFC; an NFC tag information processor to extract NFC header information from the tag information; and a memory to store the NFC header information. The NFC tag information processor analyzes the NFC header information, and installs and executes an application based on the NFC header information. A method for retrieving an application, includes: acquiring tag information; extracting near field communication (NFC) header information from the tag information; retrieving the application based on the tag information; and installing and executing the application.