Microsoft is getting ready to remove the wraps off a new smart watch in time for the holiday season, according to a report made by Forbes and confirmed by The Verge.
Sources close to Microsoft tell Forbes that the new device will take after existing devices in the market and will focus on fitness but will fill in holes left gaping by other manufacturers. Like the Fitbit and Jawbone Up, Microsoft's smart watch will be equipped with sensors for tracking health attributes such as heart rate, calories burned and heart rate.
However, unlike other wearables already available, Microsoft plans to release a smart watch with a battery that can reportedly last for two days. Forbes says Microsoft will be relying on its optical engineering expertise for the Xbox's Kinect division to create power-efficient sensors that can last throughout two days and nights.
Most high-end devices already available, including the well-designed Moto 360 and the Galaxy Gear from Samsung, can only last a day on a single charge. Apple's own Apple Watch, which Apple will be making available early next year, will also need to be charged every night, says Apple CEO Tim Cook when pressed with questions about the Apple Watch's battery life.
Microsoft also reportedly plans to make its smart watch compatible with other apps and devices developed on rival platforms, which makes sense considering its Windows Phone smartphone owns a minimal market share compared with Android and iOS devices. This would give Microsoft a bigger potential market than Apple and is in keeping with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's strategy to create products that work not just on the Windows platform but on rival platforms as well.
Rumors of a Microsoft smart watch have been going on as far back as last year, when reports surfaced that Microsoft was looking to Asia for suppliers of components of a watch device. Forbes first reported about a potential wearable from Microsoft in May, when it said that the device will resemble Samsung's Galaxy Gear Fit, although the full-color touchscreen about the size and shape of a stick of gum will be placed on the inside of the wrist rather than outside.
This, however, is not Microsoft's first wearable device. The Windows maker, in fact, launched its first smart watch 10 years ago, ahead of all the other companies who are jumping on the bandwagon only now. The Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) was one of Microsoft's biggest pet projects in 2004, with the company partnering with watchmakers such as Swatch, Fossil and Suunto to create a watch that relied on FM radio signals to do a lot of the same things more modern smart watches can do, such as send instant messages and deliver news headlines, stock news and weather forecasts to the user's wrists.
However, after putting millions of dollars into the effort, Microsoft's SPOT didn't gain enough traction to attract a market, and the company eventually killed off its first smart watch in 2008, just when smartphones were taking off.
