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With Apple and Google both offering mobile payments support at the operating system level, the pressure is on Microsoft to offer its own option for Windows phones and tablets.
Be patient, Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore said in a joint interview with Re/code and The Verge after Monday’s Lenovo Yoga launch event. “We have a bunch of work we are doing there.”
Microsoft has had the basis of a wallet in its mobile operating system since Windows Phone 8, but a full mobile payments option has been lacking.
Belfiore noted that the payments arena is tough because of the “massive network of complexity.”
Microsoft has been laying the groundwork, hiring Amazon payments product leader Iain Kennedy and applying for money-transfer licenses in various states.
“Windows is going to have a wallet concept,” he said. “We’re going to think about the range of payment scenarios.”
Things like the company’s Windows Hello authentication could be used to add more security to online transactions, but he said Microsoft is also looking at real-world payments.
As for the timing, all Belfiore would say is, “Soon.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.