Will the Microsoft Wearable Launch in a Few Weeks?

Consider the war of the wearables officially underway. As Google’s Android Wear is beginning to heat up with more devices hitting this fall, the Apple Watch set to blow the doors off next year, and a new superwatch from Fitbit leaked just yesterday, it seems we’ll be up to our armpits in wearable tech before too long. Now word has hit the web that Microsoft’s long-rumored wearable device will be hitting our wrists very soon – are you ready?

The news comes by way of a post on Forbes from yesterday, which reports that Microsoft’s wearable smartband will be launched “within the next few weeks.” Like the Fitbit Surge, the wearable is said to offer passive heart rate, which will provide a larger breadth of information about a user’s daily biometrics than heart rate monitors that need to be activated. Moreover, the device is said to boast a two-day battery life – or, in other words, double the battery of the competition from Apple and Google.

The post also maintains that the device will be cross-platform compatible, meaning it’ll work with Android, iOS, and – presumably – Windows Phone devices. If that’s also true, that’s another potential leg up on the competition. Other more salient details, however, like the device’s name, it’s price, or specific release date, is still as yet unknown. Even still, it seems as though we’ll be treated to the new device with ample time to buy it before the holiday season.

We’ve been hearing about the Microsoft wearable for some time, with reports swirling as early as last December claiming that Microsoft’s Alex Kipman, the engineer behind the Xbox Kinect, was leading the wearable project. This past summer we heard even more details, some of which were repeated in today’s report, and a patent filing for a Microsoft-made wearable was published in May. At this point, all we need to do is wait and see what’s in store.

Personally, I’m really keen to find out what Microsoft has planned for the wearable space. Android Wear and the Apple Watch seem like the two biggest contenders to dominate the wearable sector as it grows, but Microsoft isn’t one to go down without a fight. Considering how it managed to brute force its way into the video game world with the Xbox and Xbox 360, I don’t doubt it’d have a similar plan of attack for wearables.

[Source: Forbes]