Microsoft
Plans To Launch A Wearable Device Within Weeks
Microsoft is gearing up to launch a wearable device within the next few weeks,Forbes has learned. The gadget is a smart watch that will passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms. It will also boast a battery life of more than two days of regular use, sources close to the project say.
That could put it ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch and Moto 360 which both
need to be charged around once a day. The wearable will hit stores soon after
launch in a bid to capture the lucrative holiday season, a timeline Apple was reportedly targeting before
it delayed its own Watch to early 2015.
Forbes first reported in
May that Microsoft was
working on a smart watch that drew on optical engineering expertise from its
Kinect division, and which would sync with iPhones, Android devices and
Windows Phones. It is unclear what Microsoft will name the
device, or what it will cost at retail.
A wearable would mark the company’s first foray into a new device
category under CEO Satya Nadella. Wearable tech is still uncharted
territory, despite offerings from Samsung and the forthcoming Apple Watch. It’s
a marketpredicted to be worth $7.1 billion in 2015.
Going cross platform is also consistent with Nadella’s drive
to make his company’s product offerings available “across
all devices”. His launch of Microsoft Office for the iPad in
March marked a move away from the company’s Windows-only vision
under Steve
Ballmer.
The latter
strategy would probably be unwise today, now that Windows Phone has just
2.5% of the global smartphone market, according to IDC. On the
upside, Microsoft can now target its wearable at more customers than the
Apple Watch, which will only work with iOS devices.
With a battery that lasts more than two
days, Microsoft could get a leg up on big-name competitors who have
entered the wearables space. Battery life is frequently cited as one of most
important factors that consumers consider when buying a smartphone, yet the
topic was conspicuously glossed over at Apple’s Watch announcement last month.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has
since revealed the gadget will have to be charged every night,
just like the Gear and Moto 360.
Motorola’s Moto 360 smart watch also has a continuous heart rate
monitor and has been praised for its stylish design, but the battery tends to last
for just 24 hours based
on various reviews. Some wearables like the Pebble and Jawbone Up24 boast
batteries that last for days or even weeks at a time, but that becomes impossible when
a device features a color display like the Apple Watch or Gear.
When it
comes to battery life, Microsoft may benefit from its historic expertise in
software, allowing it to create sensor integrations that boost the device’s
power train efficiency.
Microsoft’s history of launching new hardware is a mixed bag. Its
Zune music player wasn’t the success it could have been, and prospects for its
Surface tablet still look hazy.
But when Microsoft introduced the Kinect for the Xbox 360 in
2011, it
became the fastest-selling consumer device on record.
Microsoft’s legacy in machine learning through Microsoft Research
could also point to a future business model for a health-tracking
device — that is, if it chooses to exploit its close ties with enterprise
customers. The company could, for example, promote its wearable gadget and any
accompanying cloud-based software as a service for helping to cut healthcare
costs, by tracking and incentivizing healthy behavior among workers.
Such “wellness” services are already being shopped by a host of
health tracking startups like
Pact Health, StickK, WellBe and Jiff, but larger tech firms have yet
to jump into the market.
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