There has been a lot of discussion about Apple Pay ever since the
announcement last month, and debate over whether or not it'll be good.
Of course, that debate mostly exists because the service hasn't been
released yet, and no one knows exactly how it will perform. Either way,
it seems Apple Pay has a fan in an unlikely source - Bill Gates.
Of course, Gates isn't praising Apple in the way you might think, he actually shares our opinion
on Apple Pay, which is that it's a good idea because it will help the
entire mobile payment ecosystem become more prominent, and ultimately,
everyone will benefit - Apple, Android, and Windows. Gates gave credit
to Android and Windows for building the NFC payment ecosystem, but says
that "Apple will help make sure it gets to critical mass for all the
devices."
The biggest benefit to Apple Pay,
according to Gates (and many others), is the Touch ID fingerprint
scanner and the added security afforded by that sensor. Though Gates
never mentioned Touch ID by name, he refers to "a cell phone that
identifies its user in a pretty strong", and how such a system benefits
customers and businesses. He even mentions how on "all the platforms,
whether it’s Apple’s or Google’s or Microsoft, you’ll see this payment
capability get built in." Though, given that all of those platforms
already have NFC payments, it seems clear that Gates is talking about
the strong identity piece of the puzzle.
So, does that mean fingerprint scanners are on their way to Windows Phone along with Windows 10? There had been rumors about fingerprint scanner support
coming to WP with the 8.1 update, but that never came to pass.
Microsoft must have some sort of strong identification method in the
works, and fingerprint scanners are the best option right now.
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