Microsoft Jumps On Android And iOS To Boost Its Wearable Strategy

Microsoft Jumps On Android And iOS To Boost Its Wearable Strategy

Microsoft’s strategy to gather users to its cloud based services continued to grow this week as it improved its offering in the wearable space.

The latest update to Microsoft Outlook on iOS increases the functionality and flexibility of the email application’s Apple Watch interface. Users of Cupertino’s digital timepiece will find it easier to see their emails on their wrist, and can reply to messages by tapping on the notification icon. This opens a dedicated Outlook app for Apple Watch and allows you to use a pre-formatted reply or dictate a new message.

"The all-new Outlook for Apple Watch is an extension of the Outlook you know and love—helping you keep up to speed with your emails, your calendar and your life. You’ll never miss what’s important with Focused Inbox Watch notifications. And browse and read full emails right from your wrist—even take action immediately by archiving, deleting, flagging or scheduling them to appear later. We’ve also added Quick Replies, with pre-written responses and voice dictation for a more personal touch. Finally, you can see unread emails and your next calendar appointment on the Glance screen."

Microsoft has spent time ensuring that its products are supported on Apple Watch, with PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, and Skype all featuring in the first wave of apps for the wearable. These have been joined in recent weeks with apps for Outlook (as noted above), Yammer, Sunrise, and Wunderlist.

Android Wear users should not feel left out as Microsoft has been working to provide applications for Google’s wearable OS, including OneDrive watch faces, dictating notes through OneNote, and Microsoft Translator all showing up for your wrist.

Microsoft also has its owns wearable in the Microsoft Band, and while the UI feels very much like the tiled interface of Windows 10′s start menu and the Windows Phone client that drives it, the companion software is also available on Android and iOS.

THE WORLD MOST EXPENSIVE WATCH

Bulgari Magsonic Sonnerie Tourbillon watch

Bulgari Magsonic Sonnerie Tourbillon. When Bulgari incorporated the Gerald Genta brand under its own name, one of the more complicated models was this vividly designed, ultra-complicated timepiece that combined a tourbillon-style regulation system with an array of chiming functions. The movement contains over 900 hand-finished parts and the case is partially produced from the special "magsonic" alloy meant to enhance the music sounds. $620,000.

Bulgari Magsonic Sonnerie Tourbillon watch

Caseback view of the Bulgari Magsonic Sonnerie Tourbillon watch.

Chopard L.U.C Tourbillon Baguette

Chopard L.U.C Tourbillon Baguette. Limited to just 25 pieces, this baguette-cut diamond decorated version of the Chopard L.U.C Tourbillon features an in-house produced tourbillon base mechanical movement and over 27 carats of the precious stones. $240,000.

Maitres du Temps Chapter One Round Transparence

Maitres du Temps Chapter One Round Transparence. At the height of the 2000s "watch boom" the new watch maker Maitres du Temps launched its Chapter One timepiece in 2008. Classic yet incredibly  complex, the Chapter One helped frame an era of imaginative design that nevertheless honored the past. $540,000.

Christophe Claret DualTow Night Eagle

Christophe Claret DualTow Night Eagle. Limited to 68 pieces, the Christophe Claret DualTow Night Eagle is a modified version of the earlier DualTow concept that typifies the uniquely complex and modern style of watchmaker Christope Claret. Time is told on two moving belts, while the movement also offers a chronograph with a special planetry gear system. $595,000.

Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4

Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4. At the time of its production the Aeternitas Mega 4 watch by Franck Muller was the most complicated timepiece in the world with over 36 distinct complications. The incredibly complex movement contains almost 1,500 individual parts which litter the dial with hands and dials to indicate all the information. $2,400,000.

Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4

Movement view of the Franck Muller Aeternitas Mega 4 watch.

George Daniel Co-Axial Chronograph

George Daniel Co-Axial Chronograph. Considered to be the most important watchmaker of the 20th century, English George Daniels only produce a few dozen timepieces across the span of his entire life. Among his more notable achievements was the invention of the Co-Axial Escapement, a system he later sold to the Swiss watchmaker Omega. The Daniel's one-of-a-kind Co-Axial Chronograph wrist watch sold for about $619,000 at auction in 2012.

MB&F HM4 Final Edition

MB&F HM4 Final Edition. Release as a limited edition of just 8 pieces, the MB&F Horological Machine Number 4 Final Edition completes the brand's total of 100 HM4 watches that were produces starting in 2010. In black titanium, the aviation inspired watch offers an exotic case shape with one horiztonal window to indicate the time, and one window to act as power reserve for the mechanical movement. $230,000.

Patek Philippe 5004T

Patek Philippe 5004T. Produced as a one-of-a-kind model in 2013 for an auction, the Patek Philippe 5004T is the only titanium version of the no longer produced reference 5004 watch collection. In a surprise move, Patek Philippe created a sportier look for the 5004 dress watch as a way to say farewell to the otherwise conservative collection. The 5004T sold at auction in 2013 for about $3,985,000.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grand Complication

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grand Complication. Gerald Genta's enduring Royal Oak design for Audemars Piguet has remained an iconc of sports luxury since the early 1970s. Its most complicated and exclusive version to date is the Grande Complication, which contains a masterful in-house made movement that combines the time, chronograph, perpetual calendar, and minute repeater. $741,600.

Jean Dunand Shabaka

Jean Dunand Shabaka. The short-lived watch company Jean Dunand was inspired by a 20th century Swiss art deco artist with movements produced by the talented watch designer Christophe Claret. Perhaps their most iconic model, the Shabaka combines art deco lines with a neo-Egyptian theme as well as a perpetual calendar movement that partially indicates information on rolling cylinders. $500,000.


The common factor in all of these applications is, as you would expect in 2015, the cloud. They all require a consumer to be using a Microsoft account and making use of Microsoft’s cloud services, from health data stored and shared via the cloud to OneNote database files residing in OneDrive’s storage so as to be accessible from any device.

It’s not about the hardware – if it was Microsoft would have pulled up the drawbridge and insist that the Microsoft Band was the only way to access Redmond’s wearable vision. Instead it is about connected devices working together with Microsoft’s cloud, working alongside other cloud services on the handset. Once more this is ‘cloud first mobile first’, but with a twist.

It is a ‘cloud first, wearable first’ future.

SOURCE: Forbes