It has been long since Microsoft Band 2 was announced, Microsoft’s own smart wearable device to help customers achieve more. Over the past year, there have been several speculations that Microsoft may launch the Band 3, but it didn’t happen and we received some pointers early when Band 2 went out of stock at major retail units and Microsoft said good bye to the good old tech.
Today, Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC and Casio Computer Co. Ltd. announced a new patent licensing deal which focuses on broad coverage for smartwatch technologies, or smart wearables. In fact, certain Casio’s smartwatches like Casio’s WSD-F10 and WSD-F20 Smart Outdoor Watch will infuse innovations directly coming from people at Microsoft, and no doubt, Band 2 did please many with what it was capable of.
From the connectivity standpoint, the above mentioned smartwatches come equipped with many basic sensors such as activity monitoring, and altimeter, barometer and compass readings. Frankly, this is not some ground-breaking innovation, but do you know these smartwatches run Android Wear 2.0 ? Yes, according to the official Casio website, they indeed do, and also support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi etc. among other features.
Here is what Micky Minhas, head of Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC has to say:
Casio’s smartwatches combined with Microsoft’s technology will help customers all over the world achieve more from their wearables.
This is an outstanding partnership that builds on Microsoft’s heritage of innovation in the technology powering personal wearables to boost Casio’s best-in-class products in this space.
Also, Hiroshi Okumura, general manager of Intellectual Property & Legal Department of Casio said:
Casio is committed to creating innovative products for all our customers, and this partnership builds on our longstanding relationship with Microsoft that’s covered products and solutions ranging from industrial handheld terminals to business information systems
We will have to wait and watch to see how this partnership shapes up in the future.
