Finally, Microsoft hops on the smartwatch bandwagon.
Microsoft isn't going down without a fight in the battle of smartwatches. Is its attempt any good?
Yes, in the sea of Android and Apple watches, Microsoft’s offering is a welcome surprise. Microsoft had a band on sale previously that was having features novel to the smartwatch fraternity like Cortana-on-tap and UV monitoring. It was a shame that Microsoft’s experiment to put Windows 10 IoT Core on the 3rd-gen band and lost any interest in building it further. However, Trekstor has taken the initiative to launch a Windows 10 IoT smartwatch.
The Trekstor watch will be sporting a 1.54-inch Gorilla Glass 3 display with Bluetooth and WiFi for connectivity. It will also have a microphone for commanding Cortana. There will be a massive amount of storage available to store data, and mega battery life. It will run Universal Windows Programs (UWP), will be connected to the cloud and leverages Microsoft Azure Cloud services like Microsoft Cognitive Services.
How much would it cost? Don’t worry; you won’t be able to buy it. The watch is built for replacing handheld devices in pharmacy, healthcare, industrial automation and inventory management. It’s still in development though.
Looks like the Silicon Valley giants are keep a strict eye on the healthcare sector. Alphabets’ Verily had revealed a similar smartwatch with health-tracking as its core purpose. Verily’s watch had a similar e-ink screen with cloud-connected services to get medical experts the valuable data they need.
One thing is for sure – if Microsoft makes something new, it will be innovative for sure, whether it sells or not.