Software giant Microsoft is working on an Apple Pay competitor.
The company has received approval for its payments transfer service from one state in the US, which is a step towards providing the service.
A Business Insider report states that during the WinHEC conference for Windows hardware makers in China, Microsoft announced that the service won’t require the carriers to get involved and add support for it as it will use Host Card Emulation that won’t require a Secure Element on a SIM card, but use NFC technology.
Faizal Khan, who is a business analyst also confirmed that Microsoft had indeed obtained the rights to push out its payments service.
Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 has built-in support for ‘tap to pay’.
At the moment, Microsoft is tight-lipped about the service, but observes that it will give it a flexibility to provide new, innovative cloud services to its customers.
Apple Pay allows certain Apple mobile devices make payments at retail or online checkout by replacing the the credit or debit magnetic stripe cards at the time of transaction. It works in direct contact with the banks.
Via IBN Live