Redmond tech titan brings Microsoft Wallet to Windows Phones

Microsoft is the latest device maker to introduce a contactless payment option. This wallet will be available only for devices on Windows Insiders.

Launching on the native platform initially is a smart and logical move on Microsoft’s part, but the buck should not stop there and the Redmond firm must have it in their plans to provide the service to iOS and Android users as well to cater to a much wider audience. Microsoft has partnered with card payment networks Visa and MasterCard for the wallet and can be used in over a million retail locations.

“Store as many credit and debit cards as you want in your Microsoft Wallet so it’s easy to make purchases with the card of your choice”.

The company said Microsoft Wallet now has partnerships with both Visa and Mastercard, as well as several major U.S. Banks including Bank of America, Chase Bank, and U.S. Bank. Users need tap their phone on a NFC payment terminal, and the default credit or debit card is charged.

“It is fundamentally important that Wallets and other mobile payment apps are adequately prepared for the cybercriminals that will already be looking for vulnerabilities in the app and the way it communicates with the cloud server and other systems”. The United States is quite lax in terms of card security and for the longest time most cards used magnetic stripes which could be easily cloned (the USA is still migrating to EMV chip based cards while nearly all cards in India have migrated already).

However, for the tap-to-pay solution from Microsoft to really work and prove to be a handy alternative to credit cards around the world, it is imperative that it is also launched for other major operating systems like iOS and Android, and is not kept exclusive to Microsoft mobile operating systems. He added that while Microsoft account holders can now access secure payment information in the digital Xbox, Office and Windows stores, they wanted more. What’s the point of tap-and-go payments if you have to enter a PIN or and keep authenticating transactions?