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Microsoft Working With Suppliers on Designs for Watch-Like Device
An anonymous reader writes with news that Microsoft may be working on a smartwatch. "The modern smartwatch market hardly even exists, and yet it's already starting to feel very crowded. Hot on the heels of plans (official and otherwise) from Apple and Samsung, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has also been shopping around for parts to build a 'watch-style device.' While details are scarce as to what that would entail, unnamed supplier executives tell the newspaper that Microsoft has been asking for 1.5-inch touchscreens. We wouldn't count on seeing an ultra-small Surface anytime soon, however -- these executives say they've visited Microsoft's campus, but they don't know whether the Windows developer is fully committed to its wrist-worn endeavor or just experimenting. If the project exists at all, of course. Still, there's finally a glimmer of hope for anyone who's still mourning the loss of their beloved SPOT watches."
There was once a smartwatch called the Timex Datalink. I remember when it came out. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink for more information.
I'm wearing a very cheap digital watch right now, and you're probably going to buy two new smartphones before its battery has run out.
That's no argument for a smart watch, but it does demolish your "watches are useless" argument pretty thoroughly.
I stopped using a watch ten years ago, in favour of my phone. This winter I got myself a new wristwatch, and started wearing them again. The watch can get bumped and scratched without worry, works fine in bad weather, I never have to worry about recharging it. And, I cna check the time without having to pull out my phone, turning it on, the putting it back again.
I fully understand all the people that use a phone as their only time tevice. I did so myself for ten years and was happy with that. But after going back to a wristwatch, I do fully understand the people that prefer that too. To me it really is more convenient than the phone. I also like how it looks on me; that's pretty important too.
With that said, I don't think I'm interested in a _smart_ watch. The point of the wristwatch, to me, is the ruggedness and the simplicitly. A smartwatch seems to throw away exactly those features and become, well, a phone on the wrist. I have a phone already. Safe and secure in a pocket, not out on my wrist.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Arguably, the problem isn't so much that 'nobody wears watches anymore'(though cellphones certainly haven't done them any favors); but nobody wears watches in the market range amenable to technology companies.
You've got your $2 digitals, unexciting but pretty solid at telling time for ages on a teeny little battery, fairly durable, and cheap enough that nobody cries if 'fairly' turns out not to be durable enough. Unless your 'smart watch' plan involves almost no money and almost no power, it'd better do something really cool if it is going to sway people away from these; because these things are cheaper and longer-running than anything 'smart' is going to be.
Then you've got the watches-as-jewelry segment, which spans a wide variety of tastes and price points; but jewelry-style luxury markets are more or less the opposite of what tech companies are good at. It will be a lot easier to sneak in here on price and care-and-feeding; but interest in 'this watch looks exactly like the other 10 million we paid foxconn to stamp out; because that's how economies of scale work, m'kay?' may be a problem.
If you had a 'smart watch' concept that was compelling enough to get the cheap seats to pay more and recharge more, or the jewelry section to embrace a disposable widget instead of some ostensibly 'timeless' fashion item, you'd have something that people would wear watches for, if necessary. That, though, is the tricky bit.
i hope it comes with a masturbation measuring app, so i can jerk off and count the number of reps, pressure, date, photo of the event to match up with previous attempts to judge how healthy bloodflow to my penis is.
i hope it also comes with an app for my rectum, where it can safely be inserted, take some pictures and gain some medical insights to the state of my system and safely navigate itself out, like a roomba, through my anus.
I am quite sure if Apple, Google and Samsung are working on developing a flying turd, Microsoft also wants one. I don't see a lot of innovative development lately. These tech giants only want to keep on par with eachother without really developing their own identity. So much for progress.
Didn't the phrase "thumbprint-sized touch screen" set off any warning bells in the designers' heads?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Woohoo, I cannot wait to run Norton or McAffee AV on my watch and do weekly patch Tuesdays...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
MS Watch: (in an electronic voice) Hi there, I see you are trying to tell the time. How can I help you?
1. Would you like me to display the time?
2. Is there a time you prefer?
3. Why don't you tell me the time?
It's true. I wore a watch in public and a criminal stole me. He left the watch, though.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.