Microsoft Confirms NFC Technology is Coming to Windows Phone Handsets Soon
Near-field communications (NFC) technology is quickly popping up in the latest smartphones, allowing users to do all kinds of fancy things such as pay for their morning coffee without even pulling their wallet out of their pocket. If you’re a Windows Phone fan, you’ll be pleased to hear that you’re not going to be left out.
Microsoft’s President of Windows Phone, Andy Lees, used this week’s AsiaD conference to confirm that NFC capabilities will be heading to Windows Phone devices soon. It will not be looking to compete with the new Google Wallet service, however, and will instead optimize its platform to work with services that already exist:
“Microsoft is providing technological building blocks so payments can be done on the phone – we aren’t competing with other people providing service. We’ll have a platform approach.”
Lees also used the time to comment on Windows Phone’s biggest rivals, saying that he believes Google’s Android is “very techie,” and that the company hadn’t taken the “people approach” with the mobile OS. This is something, he says, that Microsoft is aiming to do with its own OS, which is why the company has locked down the look of Windows Phone 7:
“We wanted to stop problems with fragmentation, so we’ve locked a lot of things down. We want partners to add value, but not in a way that’s chaotic.”
“As an example, we do hardware acceleration of the browser — no matter which WP device you choose, it all works in a consistent way. Some things in 2012 will extend that.”
Lees also took a stab at Apple’s new Siri assistant, mentioning that the service wasn’t “super useful.” Lees isn’t the first, and he certainly won’t be the last, to dismiss Siri.
Are you pleased that NFC is coming to Windows Phone devices soon?
[via TechRadar]
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