With the latest smartwatch from Samsung arriving this week, lots of consumers are wondering whether it's time to shell out $199.99 for the latest piece of wearable technology. But the real battle of the smartwatches is coming this fall, when Microsoft and Apple reportedly will fight to win the hearts and wrists of consumers with dueling bands that serve as an extension of the smartphone.
The Samsung Gear Live and the $229 LG G Watch are hitting shelves this week, set to become the first devices running Google's new smartwatch software, Android Wear. The software boasts integration with Google Now, Android's excellent personal assistant that aims to predict where you'll go and what you'll need.
Though these new wristbands are tempting for Android users, Microsoft may have something even better up — er, on — its sleeve.
According to Dedham-based tech analyst and Windows insider Paul Thurrott, Microsoft will release a sensor-packed fitness band that will feature smartphone notifications as well as a big game-changer — an open platform. That means it will work with Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.
Thurrott reports that the yet-to-be-named Microsoft device — more of a wristband than a watch — will track steps taken, calories burned, heart rate and more.
One exciting upshot of Microsoft's wristband is the potential to integrate with the Xbox One and Kinect gaming systems. Xbox fitness provides the coolest at-home virtual workouts around thanks to the wireless tracking of the motion-sensing Kinect. But adding a wristband into the mix could allow the Xbox to better tailor workouts to your daily activity levels.
Microsoft apparently aims to get to market before Apple's upcoming iWatch — perhaps the worst-kept technology secret in history. The first new major product released by Apple since the iPad in 2010, the iWatch also will reportedly be fitness-oriented, tying in with the upcoming fitness tracking app HealthKit, a hallmark of the upcoming iOS 8 mobile operating system.
Of course, Apple's iWatch only will work with Apple products, while Microsoft's upcoming device will have a clear advantage in being platform-neutral.
So far, smartwatches have had an uphill climb. After all, consumers stopped wearing watches for a reason: because they don't mind glancing at their smartphones. So smartwatches solve a problem that doesn't really exist.
Consumers are only going to pay hundreds of dollars for these new devices if they provide valuable health and fitness information that will yield measurable benefits in personal wellness. And it sounds like a new product category delivering on those needs is coming this fall — and it's all in the wrist.
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