Microsoft is weighing what to do with the mobile wallet app that’s part of the Windows 10 Mobile platform.
The operating system already has a basic wallet app (since Windows Phone 8) for storing credit card and loyalty card data, but it stops short of making mobile payments.
Joe Belfiore, corporate VP of Microsoft’s operating systems group, said, “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.”
Belfiore did not say if or when any type of mobile payment service might launch, nor what technology it might rely on. However, the spec page for the recently announced Lumia 950 says the smartphone includes “secure NFC for payment.”
When asked exactly what that referred to, Microsoft said, “We have nothing to share.” Belfiore admitted that mobile payments are not easy to implement. “[Mobile payments] is just one of these things that is a massive network of complexity,” Belfiore said. “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?”
Apple, Google, and Samsung all offer mobile payment platforms that vary a bit in how they function. Despite support from handset makers, carriers, retailers, and financial institutions, mobile payments have yet to go mainstream. Even so, it would behoove Microsoft to make sure its smartphone platform can compete with the industry leaders.
