Lessons learned from Microsoft’s pioneering—and standalone—smartwatches | Ars Technica

Is there anything to learn from these early adventures in smart devices? Perhaps. It's faintly ironic that one of the concerns people express about today's smartwatches is how little they can do when not paired with a phone. They're functionally smartphone accessories, albeit expensive ones, and this is held to be quite a drawback. But if the SPOT watches tell us anything, it's that the ability to escalate to the phone—switching to a device that isn't just a passive receiver of notifications—is, in fact, key to the value proposition. The watch alone is just too restricted, and in practice, it's just not that big a deal if the watch doesn't do much without the phone.

The limited SPOT products might also teach us a thing or two about connecting everything to the Internet. Electrical goods companies may feverishly anticipate a world in which everything has a screen and an Internet connection, but if the Melitta coffee machine is anything to go by, normal people couldn't care less about making their appliances into anything more than, well, dumb appliances.

As for Microsoft, the company is today busy trying to build platforms. It wants to be a part of the Internet of Things and offers no-cost Windows licenses to get there. And it's sure to have some kind of wearable strategy soon; the usual "sources close to the matter" claim that the company is working on some kind of wearable sensor-packed bracelet watch thing. While it will still need a smartphone, unlike the high profile devices from Apple, Motorola, Samsung, and LG, Microsoft's device will apparently work with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

Lessons learned from Microsoft’s pioneering—and standalone—smartwatches | Ars Technica