At present, it seems that everybody else except Microsoft has their finger in the pie when it comes to offering tap to pay functionality on mobile devices. Apple Pay and Android Pay have had a head start in various parts of the world, while Samsung Pay is trying to make up lost ground with a scheduled launch in Australia this coming week.
Frustratingly, for owners of Windows 10 Mobile devices, such functionality has failed to materialize. In March 2015, Microsoft covered plans for NFC payment technology using Host Card Emulation (HCE) at its WinHEC conference in China, bringing it into alignment with Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Later, in October 2015, Joe Belfiore confirmed that Windows 10 would have a concept of a wallet but when pressed for timings, all he committed to was "soon".
According to a new report from Daniel Rubino at Windows Central, NFC Tap to Pay will debut as part of the Wallet 2.0 app, included as part of the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update. Daniel was able to obtain an internal build of the updated Wallet app and setup Tap to Pay with his Bank of America debit card. Notably, credit cards issued by Bank of America failed the setup procedure, but this is also currently the case with Apply Pay.
A test transaction using a Lumia 950 to procure a Double Quarter Pounder at McDonald's verified that NFC payments did in fact work. As such, one should theoretically be able to use Microsoft's mobile payment implementation at any location equipped with NFC payment terminals.
At this stage, it is unclear as to which countries will have access to this new functionality outside the US. Pending an actual announcement of the capability, we can only hope that Microsoft wastes no time getting on with the deployment once formalities have been covered off.
Source and images: Windows Central
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