How To Rescue Microsoft's Wireless Watch From Doom

Last week we posted Alan Reiter's take on why Microsoft's wireless watch SPOT technology was doomed to fail, based on similar attempts over the past twenty years. Today, after much thinking on the subject, Reiter is back with his ideas on how Microsoft can save the project from certain doom. He thinks that Microsoft should go the direction that wireless carriers have gone and promote the wireless FM system for "fun" applications, such as changing your watch face or adding customer alarms. This matches up perfectly with kids who constantly change their mobile phone face plate and download new ringtones. He has a point - though, it also makes me wonder if the whole "watch" concept is becoming obsolete anyway. I keep hearing about people who stopped wearing watches, partly because their mobile phone tells them the time instead. Either way, I'm still not convinced that the market for changeable watch faces and custom alarms is so big that Microsoft would want to be in it. Certainly, there's a market for ringtones and such, but is it big enough to warrant Microsoft-style attention?

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