Apple has HealthKit and now Microsoft has an entry in the growing health and fitness market.
First there’s the Microsoft Band. It’s worn on your wrist and it tracks both physical activity and sleep. It includes 10 sensors that track standard health statistics like heart rate as well as unique points of data that other fitness bands do not track, like a UV sensor to measure sun exposure and galvanic skin response, which can identify stress. Like smart watches, the Band can also receive notifications from a user’s smartphone and allegedly lasts up to 2 days on a charge.
Tied into this is a cloud-based health service called Microsoft Health, which can gather data from both the Microsoft Band and other fitness data gathering devices, like smartphones and other fitness bands. The service spans the web and multiple mobile platforms including iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
The band is on sale today for $199 USD. It should be interesting to see how well it is or isn’t received. I think the fact that it supports multiple platforms might gain Microsoft some appeal. Thus, this is worth keeping an eye on.
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This entry was posted on October 30, 2014 at 10:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Microsoft Announces “Band” As Their Entry Into The Health & Fitness Market
Apple has HealthKit and now Microsoft has an entry in the growing health and fitness market.
First there’s the Microsoft Band. It’s worn on your wrist and it tracks both physical activity and sleep. It includes 10 sensors that track standard health statistics like heart rate as well as unique points of data that other fitness bands do not track, like a UV sensor to measure sun exposure and galvanic skin response, which can identify stress. Like smart watches, the Band can also receive notifications from a user’s smartphone and allegedly lasts up to 2 days on a charge.
Tied into this is a cloud-based health service called Microsoft Health, which can gather data from both the Microsoft Band and other fitness data gathering devices, like smartphones and other fitness bands. The service spans the web and multiple mobile platforms including iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
The band is on sale today for $199 USD. It should be interesting to see how well it is or isn’t received. I think the fact that it supports multiple platforms might gain Microsoft some appeal. Thus, this is worth keeping an eye on.
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This entry was posted on October 30, 2014 at 10:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.