Earlier this week we told you that NFC Tap to Pay would reportedly be coming to Windows 10 Mobile with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Today, and thanks to a new report out by Windows Central diving into more details on NFC Tap to Pay, we can report that not all Windows 10 Mobile phones may work with the new feature.
Fueling the Windows Central report is the fact that only certain credit and debit card companies support the certification standards for the Host Card Emulation (HCE) feature which is perhaps used in the Microsoft Wallet 2.o and the NFC Tap to Pay feature. Another factor is the fact that not all Windows Phone are HCE certified by credit and debit card companies such as MasterCard. As a result, only some Lumias may work with the feature, such as the ones seen in the “YES” column in this MasterCard HCE table seen below.
The final factor, it seems, appears to be the age of the Windows Phone device, and the NFC firmware. Windows Central reports that phones with NFC firmware 08.01.22 will work with Microsoft Wallet 2.0, while those with the older NFC firmware 1.xx will not.
This entire situation is very interesting and raises lots of concerns about the future and compatibility of NFC Tap to Pay in Windows Phone. So, be sure to drop us a comment below letting us know your thoughts on this situation!
