Apple has Apple Pay, Google has Android Pay, and Samsung despite being part of Android, has Samsung Pay. Safe to say that the mobile payments scene is pretty competitive at the moment, and let’s not forget there are other players such as PayPal. However it seems this has not deterred Microsoft from planning to launch their own.
In a joint interview with The Verge and Re/code, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore confirmed the Redmond company’s plans to bring some kind of wallet system to the Windows operating system. According to Belfiore, “Windows is going to have a wallet concept. You’ve seen it on phones before. We’re going to continue to iterate it. We’re going to think about the range of payment scenarios.”
Unfortunately details about the feature were not shared, like how would it work through NFC? Or will Microsoft use a different type of technology? However what Belfiore did hint at was the type of security system that Microsoft would use, and that is through facial recognition similar to the Windows Hello feature on Windows 10.
No word on when this wallet feature will launch, but Belfiore admitted that there are plenty of hurdles to overcome. “I think the biggest challenge is, What effect will cause enough of the right things to align that you’ll get a good experience with all the places that you want it to happen in? And that’s kind of a world problem.”