Smart watch speculation has dominated tech news this year. Although it’s only April, reports have surfaced that Microsoft is joining Apple, Samsung and LG in the development of wearable computers.
Microsoft is developing its own touch-screen smartwatch, the Wall Street Journal reports. Citing executives at suppliers, the software corporation asked for shipments of possible watch components earlier this year and a company exec met with the research and development team at the Redmond, Washington headquarters.
The concept of wearable computing isn’t so far-fetched given the popularity of devices such as Nike’s Fuelband, which calculates physical activity, and smartwatch newbies like Pebble’s watch, a device that syncs wirelessly with your smartphone and vibrates to alert you to incoming calls, and Jawbone’s Up, which tracks your daily activity and sleep patterns, syncing with either the Android or iOS app that logs your food and keeps track of your, among other features.
Technology research firm Gartner predicts the market for wearable smart devices to be a $10 billion industry by 2016.
“We see growing demand for wearable gadgets as the size of the smartphone has become too big to carry around,” said RBS analyst Wanli Wang to the Wall Street Journal. “A smart watch that is compatible with a smartphone and other electronics devices would be attractive to consumers.”
#SoundOff:Â Will you purchase a smartwatch? If so, what capabilities do you want these wearable electronics to have? Let us know what you think in the comments section.