"Apple is sitting on a time bomb because Indian law insists on dual authentication", Vineet Durani, Director, Windows Phone category at Microsoft, said about the iTunes payment gateway, while discussing payments on Windows Phone with MediaNama, at the launch of the Dhoom 3 mobile game last week. Apple stores CVV of an Indian credit card and does not take one through the second step of authentication for every transaction, while Microsoft set up a payment gateway that follows RBI regulations in India for transactions made by Indians. Note that Google does the same for the Play Store, and it is an issue that MediaNama had raised last year. "We had an option to set up a payment gateway outside India, but we made a conscious decision to do it this way. The problem with Apple's approach is that someone will wake up one day and ask why there is no two-step authentication and possibly cut them off. We wanted to avoid such a situation," Durani said. Microsoft had unified the payment system for PC, Mobile and Xbox platforms earlier this year, as part of which the company shifted from points system to currency for purchasing games. The company will now be rolling out cash cards, so that Indians without a credit card can still buy digital goods. Currently they are distributing promo cards along with Lumia 925 and 625, with plans to open up purchase of these store value cards to anyone who is interested. Operator billing hassles Microsoft is also working with operators…
