Technology
Microsoft Plans to Launch a Wearable Device Within Weeks
This undated product image provided by Samsung shows the Gear S watch. Samsung unveiled the new Gear S, the companys fourth major smartwatch in a year, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Samsung)
Parmy Olson, FORBES
(Forbes)—Microsoft is gearing up to launch a wearable device within the next few weeks, Forbes has learned. The gadget is a smart watch that will passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms. It will also boast a battery life of more than two days of regular use, sources close to the project say.
That could put it ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch and Moto 360 which both need to be charged around once a day. The wearable will hit stores soon after launch in a bid to capture the lucrative holiday season, a timeline Apple was reportedly targeting before it delayed its own Watch to early 2015.
Forbes first reported in May that Microsoft was working on a smart watch that drew on optical engineering expertise from its Kinect division, and which would sync with iPhones, Android devices and Windows Phones. It is unclear what Microsoft will name the device, or what it will cost at retail.
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