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Microsoft Gearing Up To Release a Smartwatch of Its Own
SmartAboutThings writes The smartwatch market is still in its nascent form, but with Apple releasing its AppleWatch in early 2015, things are going to change. And Microsoft wants to make sure it's not late to the party, as it has been so many times in the past. That's why it plans on releasing its own smartwatch, which would be the first new category under CEO Nadella. The device could get launched with two specific features that could make it stand apart from other similar devices — much better battery life and cross-platform support for iOS and Android users. A release before this year's holiday season is in the cards, with no details on the pricing nor availability. (Also at Reuters and The Inquirer.)
I bet it's called the X-Watch, has an x86 CPU and tries to cram the regular version of Windows into a 2" display with a tiny cursor controlled by a Kinect camera you wear on your head via the included X-BaseballCap.
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Microsoft supports Outlook on Android and IOS. OneDrive works on IOS, Android, Windows and OS/X
Skype works on just about all platforms.
I guess Microsoft being number 3 in the mobile space makes them support more platforms.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm pretty sure the Pebble and the too-many-in-too-short-a-time Samsung watches were already changing things.
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Can't be as bad as Apple's.
I'm normally in line with what Apple produces (and potentialy biased too) but their watch is a total let down. Pebble has been doing this for long.
3 different watches, 3 different ecosystems.
I have 2 wrists.
Unless they create a coc ring, someone is gonna lose.
Its only compatible with Microsoft time, requires network access for a license check before you can set or change any functions, and won't be supported in 7 years time.
Wait no more, with this new windows watch you will be able to make pauses during your work and stare a wonderful 8-bit blue.
No need to wait for the 16h to drink your tea, with the windows watch you get random bluescreens every time!
Now available with the new RandomFunctionEx32! It is random 7.9999 times in 8!
Call now, and get a free copy of Windows 10 Fisher price edition!
If Microsoft made a digital watch that displayed a BSOD with the date and time I'd buy it. Seriously that would be a fun product to have to mess around with friends with.
Did it? Who declared that? They seemed to be selling fairly well when I was in my local EE store yesterday, buying my two Lumia 930s :) At least another 5 Windows Phones were sold while I was being dealt with, and the store had a full display and demo area set aside for Cortana, which was drawing some interest.
I am seeing more and more Windows Phones in the wild these days - yup, anecdotal evidence etc, but its something to be noted none the less.
Since when does MS stuff get categorized as an Android item?
From the post: " with Apple releasing its AppleWatch in early 2015, things are going to change.". Hmm, how soon we forget the development partnership between Microsoft and Timex for the Timex Datalink series of watches. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... At best, I think there's a needless rush to this platform where the technology to make smart watches a partial, let alone replacement for a smart phone compared to an overpriced, under developed and thought out proprietary dongle to a smart phone.
You know what they say: "The plural of Anecdote is not Data". Windows Phone sales decline as share shrinks to just 2.5 percent
Can somebody explain why the links I have included have been modified? Not fair from /. to remove links and direct the traffic to already big outlets. Slashdot is also about diversity and supporting smaller publications, from what I remember.
Anyone remember Apple in the early-1990s? Coming down off a high of realizing they could charge $6000 for a computer, the company felt invincible and practically started chasing every Next Big Thing that came along. It didn't make a difference whether they had any background in it, whether anyone in their market wanted it, or whether it really was going to be the Next Big Thing - if someone said it was, they were on it!
By the mid-90s it was clear the company was in utter disarray. Teams throughout the company were chasing products as mundane as X.400 servers while at the same time offering the ridiculously designed PowerTalk that, for all purposes, rendered the server useless. Meanwhile no one could be bothered to work on anything as dull as the OS, which became a ridiculous collection of warts on bags. Copeland was the most obvious symptom of this problem, not the end result.
And then came Jobs. First he fires most everyone while personally interviewing new hires. Almost all ongoing projects were cancelled outright, even ones that maybe shouldn't have. Lots of utter trash, like OpenDoc and CyberDog, were thankfully killed, although people still lament HyperCard to this day. In any event, within ONE YEAR the iMac was introduced and by 2000 the Mac lineup was completely overhauled and greatly simplified. THEN they did iPod.
I believe the lesson to be learned here is that any company, no matter how large, can only do so many *new* things well. That number appears to be somewhere around two. You can continue improving existing lines, but radical change requires the entire employee base to pull in the same direction, and maintaining cohesion at that level on too many projects is simply not going to work.
So...
It is really a good time for MS to be doing a watch? The phone and tablet efforts are still completely up in the air. I don't run a multi-billion dollar company (and I'm very happy to say that) but it seems pretty clear that jumping into yet another product category while *every one* of their other categories needs major work seems extreme unwise to me. Hell, Windows 8 is universally detested. That needs to be addressed first.
Unlike Samsung and Apple's watches, which are meant as an accessory / extension for their existing flagship mobile devices, I would think MS would tend to make something a little more stand-alone and not so intimately tied to a specific device or OS. That, IMO, would be a good thing.
Better known as 318230.
You're wrong. Out of all software giants, Microsoft invests the most into research and emerging technologies. Marketing of these technologies is poor tbh, but still doesn't make Microsoft not innovative.
http://research.microsoft.com/
I've heard that Microsoft phones are pretty popular in europe.
The new Microsoft Time Telling and Instant Notification Wrist Computer Ultimate Edition
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
You also know what they say: "Lies, damn lies and statistics". Pick any period before a new product launch and I bet you can show sales declining - the new flagship WP Lumia series was announced during Q2 2014, but not released until Q3 2014, and other Lumia updates didn't happen until later in Q3 or the start of Q4, so lets see what the sales results for Q3 show before declaring WP dead on the basis of the Q2 results.
We should remember that even though they weren't exactly world beaters or "killer apps", that MS has more experience with watches than any of the large tech vendors, including partnerships with existing conventional watchmakers. They could very well be the first to get something close to the right balance here, and the fact that they appear to be making it compatible with ALL of the major smartphone platforms is an encouraging sign. We shall see.
At least another 5 Windows Phones were sold while I was being dealt with.
Was this some kind of fire sale to get rid of stock?
I've never been to a "local EE store" on a non-launch day and had that many customers waiting in line to buy the exact same product, of any product.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Nope, no fire sale, just a very busy store - seems it got busier after the Phones4U store next door to the EE store closed down. I was in the store perhaps 45 minutes, and the staff were never idle, there was a decent, steady stream of customers and probably a good 20 phones sold during that time.
And who said they were buying the "exact same product"? There was perhaps 7 or 8 different Windows Phone models on show, of which the Lumia 930 was but one - the rest of the Lumia range was represented, as were several HTCs.
My Nokia Icon is the best smart phone I've ever owned -- especially since I got the 8.1 update. Does nearly everything my several prior Android phones did, barring a few quirks, and many things it just does better. Performance is snappy (my droid phones became frustratingly sluggish over time), takes great pictures, and the overall experience has a certain "charm" which was lacking from my other phones. Oh, and Cortana is great -- intuitive, with great voice recognition. My only complaint is with Verizon, where customer representatives actively direct people away from Windows phones, and the company really drags its feet about releasing updates (I had to resort to the developer preview to get 8.1, otherwise I'd still be waiting). The latest Windows Phones should make most everyone happy.
As he did with DOS and Windows event hought he didnt have line of such software. MicroSoft is slipping in its old age.
It randomly will first show a blue screen forcing an update before you can see the time.
I thought was a good idea to use a Surface tablet for a presentation. How wrong I was, at location it found open WiFi access and was connected to power so it decided it was a good time to update (automatically, no way to cancel). It took more than an hour for the update to complete, too late to do my presentation. At least now the whole audience knows why there were no slides and that you should never rely on Microsoft software. It updated like that at least twice a month before I got rid of it.
A stupid, manufactured trend of something nobody wants? Count Microsoft in! Maybe they can find a way to put not one but TWO TOUCHSCREENS on it! And then add a subscription fee for ongoing costs and add DRM to all the media on it.
Your comment on the crown makes no sense - it's somewhat off-center by a few mm, not really any harder to reach than any other crown. And because the watch is reverseable it can be on either side.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just goes to show that you can spend a lot of money and get little in result. Seriously, can anyone tell me 1 innovative thing about the Surface? Something that a cheap Chinese manufacturer couldn't have thought of, but for less cost? .net, and Singularity - all pretty cool. But they fail in turning this into great products.
Don't get me wrong, Microsoft does some great research - C#,
Late to the party? Microsoft released a smart watch back in 2004!
http://www.cnet.com/news/time-...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
When poor people buy phones, they choose the free model. and all the windows phones are the free model as nobody in their right mind would intentionally pay the $399 premium phone price for one.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
so lets see what the sales results for Q3 show before declaring WP dead on the basis of the Q2 results.
It was probably just pining for the fjords, the Lumia prefers kipping on it's back. Lovely plumage.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Remember Betamax and VHS?
Having the best technology or devices won't necessarily bring you market share.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
I run the phone program for my company. We currently have around 200 users. I have purchased over 100 devices this year for employees, and not one has selected a windows phone. I offer whatever the current flagship phone is for each brand. Now, its useful to note that this is in the US. Because our germany counter part, has many more windows phones. However, I notice that German's are very anti google.
It sort of worked. But it was too much of a pain but it worked when I tried. Eventually I stopped updating the data and carried around long obsolete phone numbers, addresses etc for a long time. It had super good battery life. Lasted 12 years or so. Then I went back to a simple Casio GShock.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It seems as if an always on OLED display would be the major source of battery drain - and so I don't get why watch makers haven't used e-ink. Come into the market as Timex and not a Rolex. A simplistic device which displayed time and push notifications at a $50 price point seems like it'd quickly dominate the market. Heck, you could even make it an e-ink background to a nice analog watch for that matter (although that'd probably up the total price). This sort of thing wouldn't need the processing power (i.e. more battery drain) as the current giant glossy types either. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I don't get the high-end luxury approach.
Open API would be natural too; especially given a low price point this type of watch could quickly be a community favorite.
Apple (and later Samsung) simply got the polish and the marketing right, and made the devices "cool" (by riding the coattails of their own iPod's success in Apple's case).
I don't disagree that Apple polished the smartphone and the tablet. But few would not argue that Apple and Android also made them actually usable. I had a WM6 phone. It crashed randomly. Figuring out how to do anything required looking it up as everything was buried 3 menus deep. The problem for MS was their mindset of just putting Windows on a device and calling it done. Part of this was probably Gates who had an aversion to anything but Windows. There is a story that MS had an e-reader before anyone else but since it didn't use a Windows UI, Gates killed it.
This was the main issue with the tablets. There were expensive touchscreen laptops. They provided few real advantages over a much cheaper Windows laptop other than you could use touch. The UI was modified to add a pen. That was all the optimization done. Also at the time, there were not light by any means so carrying one was not comfortable.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I've heard that Microsoft phones are pretty popular in [sic] europe.
Nope - non-techs and style-conscious get iPhones, nerds and people who don't care but want big screens get Androids, typically from brands they know from other contexts, like Samsung.
Please reboot for the change to take effect...
I don't think the MS mobile products were a failure. Marketing a phone in this industry is an uphill battle especially when the retail stores push Apple as the ideal product and Android as the economy option. I'm not talking out of my ass, I've been to 3 stores while looking to replace my wife's phone and the story was the same at all stores:
- Apple is the best if you can afford it
- Android phone are nice and they cost less
- Windows Phone. I wouldn't sell you that if my life depended on it. Why? Long moment of silence... They have no apps.
So ignorance and pre-made opinion will fail any new player to the market. That's the truth. Ended up getting my wife a Nexus which I find better than any Apple product offered yet... My 2 cents.
You just described a cheaper version of the Pebble.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Battery life of a Casio calculator watch, screen size of a tablet, iOS on on side of the screen, android on the other, SD card, usb3, RJ-45, and hdmi ports.
In short, they listened to this crowd.
Bigger than a Nomad, wireless.
What's not to like?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
What makes Microsoft think this will do any better?
The gov; what's easier than routing NIST current time output toi the user.
It seems you're living in the UK. Windows Phone has had more success there than in the US. American consumers are fairly close-minded; they, by and large, follow the herd and refuse to consider alternatives. Android is gaining traction, but I still come across people who chose that platform only grudgingly; they prefer the iPhone but aren't willing to pay the premium to get one. They're painfully ignorant of other platforms, as evidenced by all the fanfare over ApplePay and the way people talk like Apple has invented NFC payments.
The problems for Windows Phone are exacerbated by atrocious retail and carrier support. Microsoft talks extensively about partnerships but carriers do little to promote the platform and most retailers don't care their phones at all. The only place you'll find them are carrier stories and there employees, either due to ignorance or pressure from management, actively steer consumers way from Windows Phone.
I wish it was larger and fit in my pocket. Kind of like my Windows Phone does...
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
Thanks for the link! From that data, it looks like Windows Phone is close to parity with iOS when you look at the EU market. The world IS larger than just the US, you know... Also check India where Windows Phone has a larger market share than iOS. It's actually succeeding quite well outside the US...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Also not to mention that MS produced it's first "smart watches" in the mid 90's (Timex Datalink) in cooperation with Timex, and also the SPOT watches from middle of the last decade. Not exactly market success, especially the second one. But MS was working with watches, tablets, PDA's etc. back when Apple was a just few dollars away from collapse and bankruptcy
Yeah, you're asking for a Pebble. They currently cost $100. It will be $50 in a couple of yrs.
But the OLED display is not always on on the AppleWatch. It's mostly off. It only turns on when you look at it.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Clap if you believe...
Will it be a stand alone smartwatch that doesn't require a mobile phone? I want a smartwatch like the old school Casio DataBank Calculator (150/300) watches. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I haven't worn a wrist watch for a couple of decades - why should I start now?
Unless it was officially classed as 'clothing' by the state (MN) and so exempt from sales tax.
Aren't they already late to the party? Apple, Samsung, Google, and others have been working on smart watches for *years* already. If MS hasn't been quietly working on this for a while already, it seems to me like they're already late.
Thanks for the link! From that data, it looks like Windows Phone is close to parity with iOS when you look at the EU market.
Only if you can't read a chart. Even in the EU chart, iOS is about 2x WP.
The world IS larger than just the US, you know.
The world is also bigger than the EU. If you look at global numbers, WP looks flatlined compared to iOS.
Also check India [statista.com] where Windows Phone has a larger market share than iOS. It's actually succeeding quite well outside the US...
Can't see the chart but I can only assume you are ignoring the fact that Lumia phones are on huge discount in India and that Apple doesn't do any real discounting. Again for global numbers, it appears Android is dominant, iOS is present, and Windows is barely above RIM and Symbian. That is not success.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
MS Watch: Hi there, I see you are trying to find the time.
Human: Yes, please tell me the time.
MS Watch: Would you like that in military time or civilian time?
Human: Sigh...civilian please.
MS Watch: Which time zone are you in?
Human: Hell, I don't know, you figure it out.
MS Watch: Hmmm....you must be in Tuvalu's time zone, are you on the east or the west side?
Human: Egads...just give me the time and tell me what time zone you got it from.
MS Watch: I don't think I like your attitude.
Human: You don't know the time, do you?
MS Watch: Why don't you tell me the time?
Human: ** shoots self in head **
MS Watch: Look, I'm not telling the time to a dead guy, are you really dead?
Human: ** raises a weak hand with gun...the final shot is fired **
MS Watch: Errr....I need a software upgrade and could you please reboot me? Yoo hoo? Yo? Sign...bloody humans!
Yeah, but does it come in brown??
az0
You know what they say: "The plural of Anecdote is not Data".
Wouldn't that be "the plural of anecdote are not data"?
/Throws grammar grenade and runs.
(I see you capitalised it, are you be referring to this Data)
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Hardly needs OLED - a mono watch could do a blue-screen
If they can produce a smartwatch that does it's job and does not need an smartphone to operate I'm in for one.
I carry GPS watches anyway for running. And most of the people who runs huge mileage do not carry phones either.
Yes, I know. it's stupid, you could carry one in the camel back when running trail... but it's kinda symbolic for us not to carry a stupid arm thingy with the phone. And of course no headphones, but that's for obvious safety reasons.
Back to topic: A watch with strapless heart rate meter and GPS and which did not need a phone to work but that could be just synched with a PC / Mac (or tablet) would be ideal. If possible with a "sportive" design, like rubber / plastic straps and light weight making it suitable for wearing while on trail. A full-blown battery slurping app is not necessary as it is of no use on the way and with a battery life this long it would be great for ultras.
Ah, and an "unsmart" button to set the watch in sporting mode so that it does not bother you with the "smart" features as I seriously doubt that somebody will pay attention to his email or whatsapp when he is in the middle of a trail or trying a one-rep-max in the gym (and even when not, when I'm training I in "fuck you all" mode).
-- 29A the number of the Beast