SpotStop.Com > Fossil to Exit SPOT Market, MSN Direct Update

Fossil to Exit SPOT Market, MSN Direct UpdateFossil has made their last MSN Direct watch, at least for the foreseeable future. Coco and Glam were made in a tiny batch and sold to Tiger Direct. However we hear Fossil is no longer going to make new watches and will re-direct their technology efforts after current inventory is sold through. Microsoft has recently pulled the SPOT initiative back into R&D and appears intent on pushing the technology into other products like the weather clocks and integration with the PC and other Microsoft products.

With SPOT going back into the garage for a re-tooling, the hope is that it will emerge with more stability and functionality. Indeed, the commitment from Microsoft over the past several months has been just that, though any improvements are difficult for end users to see. In a recent post in our forums, a Microsoft representative disclosed they have been working on infrastructure improvements to make the network more reliable and efficient in bandwidth usage.

Along with behind the scenes improvements, we're getting renewed enthusiasm for the development of the traffic channel, which has hit a significant development milestone. The weather clocks also appear on target, after that front had been silent since January.

With the exit of Fossil, Microsoft is going to be hard pressed to continue the technology in watches unless a major new player comes into the mix. Suunto and Swatch are good partners, but both have poor product distribution. Almost all SPOT watch purchases need to be made online now, unless you live in a city with a Swatch store.

While the future of SPOT is no more certain than it was a few months ago, the signs seem to indicate that Microsoft is still committed to the platform. The unknown at this point, is which direction it will go.