Great, another wearable. After esteemed technology companies, jewelry designers and even sup-par musicians all jumped on board the promising wearable bandwagon, we’ve been wondering where Redmond’s position is in all of this. While we reported back in April that Microsoft is planning a wearable, it was merely just a rumour. But now, reports suggest that we could see a wrist-wrangler straight out of Redmond “within weeks”.
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But what will Microsoft do differently as opposed to the Android Wear crowd?
According to Forbes, the wearable will be cross platform, holding hands with some of the industry’s biggest mobile OS’, including Windows Phone, Android and iOS. That’s a massive potential market, so there’s a slap in the face to the naive Samsung and Apple ecosystems, among others.
Of course, the wearable will sport the customary heart-rate monitor and fitness tracking gimmick that all these watch-replacements flaunt, but it’s not the primary attraction. Nadella and company are also quoting a battery life of more than two days. Slap number two.
Even Apple Watch, Tim Cook’s pride and joy it seems, needs a charge every day after sunset. The next best smartwatch — the Moto 360 — requires the same wall-socket love as its Cupertino rival.
This all sounds brilliant, but Microsoft’s recent product release history hasn’t been particularly memorable (not for the right reasons, anyway). Remember the drama of Windows 8? The OS has grown into a capable piece of software after a few patches, but market adoption hasn’t quite mirrored that.
With news of this new wearable, the question also remains: “What OS will this thing run?” And perhaps more importantly, could we see the watch wholly integrated into the Windows 10 ecosystem?
Probably not the latter considering that Windows 10 is made for screens 8″ and up, we may not see 10 running on this. Could we possibly then see a mobile OS specifically developed by Microsoft for this product? We’ll know in a few weeks.
Featured image: Nadir Aslam via Behance
