Cupertino has Apple Pay and Mountain View has Google Wallet, but the folks at Redmond may seem to be missing its mobile payment feature - an essentially dire requirement, especially in today's day and age where software giants battle one another with innovative features that would appear as applications built for convenience rather than for show. As such, Microsoft is looking to relaunch its mobile payment system, the Windows Wallet.
"Windows is going to have a wallet concept. You've seen it on phones before. We're going to continue to iterate it," said Corporate Vice President For Microsoft's Operating Systems Group Joe Belfiore to The Verge and Recode during an interview. "We're going to think about the range of payment scenarios."
However, Belifore did not mention when the new Windows Wallet would launch, or whether it will still be utilizing NFC or other payment technologies in order for it to work. He did mention Windows Hello, Microsoft's latest facial recognition technology that was introduced alongside Windows 10, to be a good example of what technology Redmond will be building into its devices for authentication to make payments better. According to the source, any kind of updated Windows Phone payments app would be using NFC to push through, similar to the technology that was used back in Windows Phone 8.1.
There are still no official announcements or statements as to when Windows users can use the new Wallet app, but Belfiore said that it would be 'soon.' However, with both Apple and Google are actively improving their mobile payment system methods, Microsoft's new and coming Windows Wallet should be coming quite sooner than one can expect.
To add, Microsoft's payment methods for the Windows Store include credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, online payment services such as PayPal, Alipay, and INICIS, Microsoft gift cards, or on top of the owner's mobile operator bill. To have a new Windows Wallet in addition to the aforementioned list can be a welcomed feature as well.
