A Microsoft Watch Will Provide Much More Than Time

"Microsoft, continuing its effort to extend its reach beyond computers, today introduced designs for a new class of watch that gives more than the time and a pocket audio and video player.

The designs, which will be available from several manufacturers by the end of the year, were presented by Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, in a speech today that opened the annual International Consumer Electronics Show here.

But even as the company extends its reach to new devices, Microsoft's vision is closely linked to the computer. Both the watch — which can provide weather information, text messages and other data — and the media player are designed to be controlled through wireless connections to their owners' PC's....

The watch will initially be made by Fossil, Citizen and Suunto. The simplest versions will cost less than $150, but the watchmakers will also make much more expensive designs. The watch will require a subscription to a data service, which Microsoft executives said might have a fee of $5 to $12 a month or might be included in the price of some watches.

All of the watches will have a small, rectangular liquid crystal display and the ability to receive short data messages, much like a pager. This technology will allow the watch to identify where it is and what the local time is — and the local weather forecast — as the wearer travels.

The watch will also be able to receive the wearer's personal calendar sent from a personal computer and instant messages sent through Microsoft's messaging service.

Microsoft has built a new national wireless data network, based on the data broadcasting ability of FM radio stations. The company says that compared with traditional paging systems, this network makes it cheaper both to broadcast data and build receivers. It said the microchips for the watch, which it designed, cost less than $10 each wholesale.

Microsoft's watch design is the first instance of what it calls smart personal object technology, or SPOT, which powers devices with access to information. William H. Mitchell, the general manager of the smart personal objects unit, said such a device could be sold for less than $20." [New York Times: Technology]

I don't think I could handle a blue screen of death on my watch. Actually, I don't even wear one. As Richard Lewis used to say, I tell time the way the Aztecs did - by asking the person next to me.

I can't imagine paying a subscription fee for a watch when I'll have my smartphone with me and it will do all of this and more via a wireless, always-on connection.

Handhelds Go Multimedia is a good primer on the convergence of cell phones and PDAs for those not already familiar with the topic. The good news: "the hardware is basically here and now." The bad news: "Plan to choose more than one, and then a new one every 18 months or so as technology advances." So basically Moore's law has transferred from PCs to smartphones. Of course, none of this will happen until we have cell phone number portability in the U.S.

"This Next Big Thing will result from a combination of three big things: rapidly advancing handsets and PDAs, fast wireless networks, and compelling applications.

While we can't say for sure whether the Next Big Thing will be a Treo, a Pocket PC Phone, a Nokia 3650, a T-Mobile Sidekick, or one of the other devices flooding the market, we can say this with confidence: Most of us will be carrying small, powerful devices, equipped with high-resolution color displays and connected to fast voice and data networks. We'll use them to send and receive video, music, and rich multimedia messages; play games; and access a host of location-based services." [ZDNet]

Today's AnchorDesk column, Where Mobile Tech Is Headed, goes into more detail. Consensus already seems to be that wireless is the "it" technology this year, but then we knew that last year.