Microsoft demos NFC-enabled mobile wallet feature of Windows Phone 8

John Skovron, group program manager for WP 8, showed the different features of the Mobile Wallet in WP 8 OS.

Microsoft recently showed one of Windows Phone 8's new features - Mobile Wallet at the NFC World Congress last week in France. Windows Phone 8 will have Mobile Wallet as one of the Hubs on the smartphones and will support Near Field Communication technology. John Skovron told NFC World that the goal is to offer a seamless user experience and get adoption growing for Windows Phone devices.

Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is expected to be unveiled and formally announced by the end of next month - October. At the NFC World Congress, Microsoft's group program manager for Windows Phone, Skovron, showed the mobile Wallet feature in Windows Phone 8. The Wallet will rest as one of the Hubs on Windows Phone 8 and aims to offer users a friendly and comfortable experience .

The NFC capabilities are incorporated in Windows Phone 8 through a feature called Tap+Send for easier understanding for consumers. Skovron stated that Windows Phone 8 will include the Wallet app and NFC chip inside. The Wallet app and NFC capability will be usable separately and also collectively through usage overlapping. Initially, Microsoft will be focussing on using the NFC chip and Wallet app separately and with minimal overlapping activities.

Just like several other m-wallet apps, the Wallet on Windows Phone 8 devices will have similar functionalities to store e-tickets, passes, loyalty cards, deal coupons and payment credentials. The Wallet will be PIN protected and the cards added to that will be called Fast Cards. Users will get the option of choosing relevant cards for mobile commerce, mobile payments, NFC payments, and so on. The user also gets to make the card available only at the time of payment or set it as available always. The Deals option in the wallet will have Bing search integrated to pull data about deals close to the user's location.

To avoid confusion with several listed cards, Microsoft will use the term Wallet Agents that will allow users to dynamically update the items in the Wallet. These changes will also reflect credit limits and available balance for the listed cards. "Through extensibility, wallet items come alive with dynamic data and functionality," says Skovron. "Developers can choose how much information they want to give in the wallet and how much they want to use to drive people to the app itself."

Not every Windows Phone 8 machine will come with an NFC chip built in but Microsoft has been urging its handset partners to put NFC chips in upcoming Windows Phone 8 based devices. Despite its relatively smaller user base, Window Phone 8 has loads of potential to compete with existing matured mobile operating systems.