Speaking of smartwatches, you can add one more name to the list of companies working on this piece of wearable technology. “Trusted sources” have told AmongTech that development of the device has already hit the prototype stage.
The Microsoft smartwatch will run a modified version of Windows 8, allowing it to communicate with other Windows 8 and presumably Windows Phone 8 devices. Reportedly made of oxynitride aluminium, an expensive transparent polycrystalline ceramic compound that is four times stronger than glass, it will come with a choice of colours, including blue, red, yellow, black, white and gray, for the wristband. It will also sport a 1.5-inch display and 6GB of internal storage, primarily for the operating system, supported by additional cloud storage. With its own LTE connectivity, it will not need to be paired to another device to work.
Citing people familiar with Microsoft’s plans, The Verge has learned that the Xbox accessories team did much of the early design work but that the project has now been moved to the Surface team. The reassignment could be a result of Microsoft’s recently announced reorganization. The move is also echoed in AmongTech‘s report.
Given that it’s still at the prototype stage, the Microsoft smartwatch is not expected to launch until late 2014, possibly alongside the Apple iWatch which is reportedly facing design challenges.