Must Read: Sorry, but bringing back the Start menu won't help Windows 8

Topic: Mobile OS

Windows Phone 8 Wallet hub beats Apple's iOS 6 Passbook

Summary: Microsoft just revealed several new features in Windows Phone 8 and one of the most impressive to me is the upcoming Wallet hub that looks to easily beat the iOS 6 Passbook that Apple just announced.

Matthew Miller

By for Smartphones and Cell Phones |

Last week Apple revealed Passbook for iOS 6 and people were pretty impressed to see a single app that brings together the data people use in lots of other apps. Microsoft just blew Passbook out of the water with their Windows Phone 8 Wallet hub announcement.

Passbook is an app the lets you load up boarding passes, loyalty cards, movie tickets, and more into a single place. Similar to the scanning methods I wrote about earlier, you will be able to use your iOS device to show the bar code for these services. There are some slick lock screen functions, but that appears to be it for Passbook.

On the other hand the new Wallet hub on Windows Phone 8, covered in detail by The Verge, integrates these same loyalty cards, boarding passes, and other services and then takes it a few steps further with credit and debit cards along with NFC functionality. You will be able to either scan a code or tap to make transactions via NFC. The hub also integrates deals from vendors and works across applications for mapping and other more extensive functions (tying bank apps to the Wallet hub).

I like Google Wallet on my Galaxy Nexus, but it is a compeletly broken experience since carriers block access and there are serious issues with reliability. Microsoft solves this issue by including Wallet hub on all Windows Phones, including those with Mango.

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Topics: Mobile OS, Apple, Microsoft, Mobility, Operating Systems, Software, Windows

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31 comments
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  • Wow...

    Praise for a Microsoft product from ZDNet... sacriledge... LOL...

    can't wait until they announce the customer facing upgrades...
    widow maker
    Reply 5 Votes

    • Why wouldn't a Microsoft employee

      write the glowing p[raises of all Microsoft's products. Isn't that how you become an Elite Microsoft Evangelist?
      Jumpin Jack Flash
      Reply Vote

  • But...

    But the fact that NFC is based on the SIM card means yet again the carrier controls it, and even more so with Windows Phone 8. That will only serve to further the slow adoption of an idea that should have long ago enjoyed widespread use.

    At least with Google Wallet you can shoehorn it in yourself like I did on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus.
    robroy90
    Reply Vote

    • Yes, everyone wants to have to "shoehorn" there financial

      transaction applications onto a device. Both for security and reliability, that is the last type of application I want to "shoehorn"!
      rmark@...
      Reply Vote

  • You really have to wonder...

    Do the boys at the Apple Core still believe that Apple has nothing to worry about?
    slickjim
    Reply 5 Votes

    • Yes

      Nt
      danbi
      Reply 1 Vote

    • I don't agree with the nothing to worry about attitude

      Simply because everyone needs to worry about their competition but this isn't enough to change many if any attitudes. It's not like Passbook or Wallet Hub are game changers.
      non-biased
      Reply 1 Vote

  • Will Wallet Hub make it into Windows Phone 7?

    Or are people buying current Windows Phones just SOL?
    matthew_maurice
    Reply 1 Vote

    • yes

      they will

      feature wise, 7.5 (or 7.8 when upgraded) will be the same as WP8 apart from features that are hardware specific (NFC transactions, new resolutions etc)
      danjames2012
      Reply 3 Votes

      • Citation required.

        I'll believe that when I hear Mary Jo or Paul Thurott tell me that.
        matthew_maurice
        Reply Vote

      • Surprise, surprise.

        From Win Super Site: "[i]Microsoft is throwing a bone to existing users in the form of Windows Phone 7.8...which will provide only the barest of Windows Phone 8-like features. In fact, it will provide just three.[/i]" http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windowsphone75/windows-phone-78-preview-143476

        For the record, those are:[ol]
        Start Screen
        Tile Sizes
        Windows Update[/ol]

        The last is a great, and long overdue, feature, but alas too little too late for a lot of WP7 owners.
        matthew_maurice
        Reply Vote

      • No way

        New OS = new API.

        Software written according to the new API does not run on older APIs.
        Software written for the old API usually runs on the new API (sometimes not).

        Means: for Windows Phone 8 apps, buy new phone.
        danbi
        Reply Vote

      • Not from what I've read.

        And I'll take the words of Microsoft over a Microsoft fanboy.
        Jumpin Jack Flash
        Reply Vote

    • Wallet Hub in WP7.x

      Currently, it would appear that they are SOL. Wallet Hub didn't make the rather short list of features that will be added to WP7 in the 7.8 update.
      DNSB
      Reply Vote

      • OH MY GOD...

        yes it did, read the announcement on the microsoft windows phone blog... jeez...
        danjames2012
        Reply 5 Votes

    • When are you buying your Windows Phone?

      That's why you are asking, right? Because you are planning on buying one? Since it would be silly for you to be asking for any other reason, let me ask you why you find Windows Phone to be better than iPhone? After all, you must believe that or you wouldn't care about this, right?

      Uh huh.
      toddbottom3
      Reply Vote

      • Silly?

        Hardly. I was illustrating a point that MS just shafted every Lumia owner. Mr. Miller talks about how this feature is better than what will be offered in iOS, yet he fails to note that it won't be even available in the U.S. for up to a year, after release. In addition, it won't be supported on current WP7 devices, or those WP7 devices bought in the next few months. Any guesses as to the odds of Passport being supported on current, and even previous generation, iPhones? 100%, perhaps?

        In short, while "Windows Phone 8 Wallet hub beats Apple's iOS 6 Passbook" it won't do it for potentially more than a year, [b]and[/b] it won't to it for anyone who [i]ever[/i] bought, or buys, a Windows Phone 7 device.
        matthew_maurice
        Reply Vote

      • You didn't answer the question

        When are you planning on buying your Windows Phone?
        toddbottom3
        Reply Vote

      • You obviously don't mind...

        showing how much of a hypocrite you are do you?
        non-biased
        Reply 1 Vote

  • Matt, you kinda forget a little tidbit.

    [i]"In the US, Microsoft has been working with Isis ??? the combined effort of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and others ??? [b]and will have a solution ???over the course of the next year??? though not at launch."[/b][/i]

    What do you think are the odds that this is the reason that feature isn't present in the iOS 6 beta?
    matthew_maurice
    Reply Vote
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