SPOT 2.0 watch in the works
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 17th 2006 8:43AM
posted May 17th 2006 8:43AM
Sure, you picked the ROKR E1 as the worst gadget of 2005, but the SPOT watch was certainly in the running. Even with lackluster sales, Microsoft will not be abandoning the platform, oh no. Instead, Bill "I'm a SPOT believer" Gates says Microsoft is working on the next revision. On top of owning-up to his curious choice in deities at the SharePoint Conference earlier this week, Sir Gates was also rather candid about first-gen SPOT limitations which included poor industrial design (too thick) and the choice of distribution channels as key reasons for the watches, uh hum, limited success. In the Q&A session following his presentation, Bill also stated that a "new generation" of SPOT watches is on the way featuring better ergonomic design, color screens, and "things." Not sure what things he might be alluding to, but take heed Bill 'cause Nokia is gunning to make watches, cameras, MP3 players, and video cameras obsolete with their [Thanks, Gary R.]
I got the Tissot High-T SPOT watch as a gift last year and it's really great. Touch screen, etc. Reading news, sports, quote of the day, syncing with my Outlook calendar, etc was really nice and kept me awake in boring meetings. The SPOT tech is really a nice idea, but with most nice ideas, the execution was rather poor. I'm still a believer in SPOT too.
Yeah I always thought these were a great 'idea' but they have yet to be practical - although with microchips getting smaller and faster - who knows?
And NOKIA can get screwed. Put Windows on your "phones" and shut-up.
Watches are pretty much an affectation nowadays, aren't they?
This makes sense...Microsoft never gets anything right until at least version 3.
What about the xbox 360? Thats only version 2. I can't wait to hear more about these watches and whats different from the last time when they flopped other then the design and color screen.
Million Dollar Question: If Bill is a real SPOT believer, does he currently wear one of these as his regular watch?
Yeah sure xbox360 is only version 2 after only how many service packs on the 1st one? And later this year they will have an Xbox360v2 with a HD DVD. Maybe by v3 of the xbox they will RELEASE it correctly.
Oh and I like SPOT I have one it is big, clunky, and not too pretty, but it has the correct time that is all I need.
All you really need is a watch with Bluetooth and a cellphone that will relay the information you already pay for TO the watch, and display it in the fashion you need.
not to mention BT headset capabilities - dick tracy style.
Steelio, adding HD-DVD support isn't fixing a flaw. That tech wasn't even around at launch!
The major problem with these SPOT watches is the coverage area. In our state (IL), they only cover Chicago. The old Internet Messenger watch from Timex had a much better coverage (I believe they were using skytel) so what's the deal here???
One of intel's early chip products was one of the first digital watches on the market. Its something as functional as what you would get in a happy meal now-adays, and originally sold for more than $100. They got hosed on the project and went of to make microprocessors. To this day Gordon Moore still wears one of these watches. Sir Bill really should be wearing one...
I did a survey awhile back from MS and it was all about Bluetooth for the watch. Aside from the incoming call they asked about connecting via Bluetooth to a computer to download updates, reading txt messages not just from MSN. Does anyone even use MSN to chat? Anyway, I love my Fossil Abacus and the service and time are great. My wrist is huge so it actually looks like a normal watch on me.
"Oh and I like SPOT I have one it is big, clunky, and not too pretty, but it has the correct time that is all I need."
You know there are hundreds of little wrist wearable clock dealies available that are neither big, clunky, or ugly... You just watch the thing and it gives you the time, the name is on the tip of my tongue I just haven't seen somebody use one in so long!
What is the target market for these devices? I'm curious. People who want watches as status symbols (think: upper management) don't care about tech. The geeks want more functionality than you can fit into five buttons. What, do you really want to try to surf the Net on one of these things? What the heck?
These are a pretty cool idea. I had one (actually two cause the first one's charger broke and I couldn't get it replaced). I'm glad to see they're gonna take a second shot at it. Hopefully they can make it two-way though and expose the .NET Compact Framework which I believe is baked into the ROM on these things.
Ok HD DVD on the Xbox360 now is an enhancement. What about the power supply issue? Or perhaps most importantly legacy support for older xbox titles?
To me the biggest problem with MS the rush to market and get it fixed either on the fly or in another release.
Here's what I'd like my SPOT to be:
-OLED (Make it sleek and beautiful)
-Control/Talk to other devices (MP3 playback, Answer calls with phone/bluetooth headset, GPS directions)
-Notificaitons (Synced Email, Weather, Synced Calendar Events, News)
Some of those features they already have, but I'd definately go for one that did all those things.
At MEDC'06 Microsoft tried out their newest .NET MicroFramework device: the SumoRobot. They gave teams a Parallax SumoRobot modified to run a beta of the .NET MicroFramework, like what's in the SPOT watch, and challenged them to get tweak the demo code and compete in a competition. The framework is pretty nice to write in, has I2C and SPI which is cool. Maybe we'll start seeing it in a bunch more consumer devices too?