Surface smart watch in prototype with modified Windows 8

Life

16 July 2013

Microsoft is reportedly moving ahead quickly with development of a smart watch, having reached the prototype stage of a 38mm. device running on a modified Windows 8 housed in a translucent aluminium case.

In addition to the housing made of an expensive material called oxynitride aluminium, the watch will have removable wrist bands in blue, red, yellow, black, white and grey, AmongTech reported Friday, citing trusted, unnamed sources.

The aluminium is 80% transparent, but four times harder than glass. What may be the broadest-reaching innovation is that the device will not completely rely on a Bluetooth connection to a smart phone as many smart watches would, and instead will include an LTE wireless chip, 6 GB of internal storage and a connection to cloud storage. Still, the watch can be used to communicate with a smart phone for some functionality, AmongTech’s sources said.

Previous reports have indicated that Microsoft has been taking bids for 38mm. displays from manufacturers. The Verge also reported, citing unnamed sources, that Microsoft has moved the prototype testing of the watch to its Surface team of developers and designers. The work was previously done by the company’s Xbox accessories group.

The switch of the prototype to the Surface team could be a reflection of Microsoft’s reorganization announced last week, which refocuses the company along a "devices and services" concept previously outlined by CEO Steve Ballmer.

Various reports have suggested a Microsoft Surface watch could appear in 2014, which would be later than the rumoured iWatch from Apple due out presumably this fall. Sony, meanwhile, revealed its third-generation Smart watch 2 on June 25, with a 41mm. display, but no pricing or availability was announced.

Analysts have been sceptical about the potential market for smart watches, but others have said that Apple will help create interest with its device, as it did with the iPhone six years ago. Sony expects 41 million smart watches to be sold by 2016, but that is a small fraction of the nearly 1 billion smart phones sold globally in a year.

IDG News Service

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