Microsoft Tackles Health with $199 Fitness Band

Microsoft Tackles Health with $199 Fitness Band

On the heels of companies like Fitbit and Lenovo that recently came out with new fitness trackers, Microsoft has solidified the rumors of its own new wearable device. Soon after mysterious Microsoft Health apps appeared in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Windows Store last night, news of the Microsoft Band, the company's first fitness tracker, broke to usher Satya Nadella's empire into the world of digital health.

At a glance, the $199 Microsoft Band is your standard fitness tracker. It looks like a hybrid of the Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit, with its horizontal screen, and the Nike Fuelband with its matte black, sporty design. It will track the typical fitness metrics, including steps, calories, heart rate and sleep quality, and will support 24-hour heart rate monitoring and automatic activity counting. It's also got a built-in GPS, so you can see the route, pace and distance of your run. Microsoft Band will connect to your smartphone too, providing email and calendar alerts on its screen, and Windows Phone users will be able to take notes and set reminders on the band using Cortana integration.

While details on each store's app pages are sparse, it appears that the wristband is built for continuous monitoring, and according to a report from The Verge, data collection is the "big idea" behind the Microsoft Band. Unlike the health monitoring systems recently released from Apple and Google, Microsoft's Health cross-platform cloud service is open to any operating system and is working on supporting as many digital health products as possible.

Microsoft has reportedly already made Health compatible with Android Wear smartwatches, Android phones, and the motion processor in the iPhone 6 - that way it can automatically collect data from those devices. The company is also working with companies like Jawbone, RunKeeper and MyFitnessPall to gather their data and store it as well.

Microsoft wants to be everywhere and anywhere fitness information is being tracked, and it's hoping that Health can eventually be the hub where all of this valuable data lives. This could potentially give Microsoft the intelligence and ability to provide users with insights and advice on how to improve their health.

Currently, this is where most fitness trackers fall short: they are all capable of tracking fitness and health metrics, relaying them back to you, and maybe even analyzing the data - to a point. Very few consumer health devices, especially wristband fitness trackers, succeed at giving users actionable advice on how to change and improve their health. With an open platform and the will to invest in and create better trackers, Microsoft has the potential to do this.

It will be a while before we know if any of these big ideas become a reality. Even if Microsoft's Health functions perfectly, people have to be willing to try it and use it continuously in order for the company to accumulate the vast amount of health data it wants. In addition to seeing how the Microsoft Band can stand up to its competition, we're also interested to see how well it integrates with Health (and how third-party devices and apps integrate with Health as well), and how much Health can really do for us now. The Microsoft Band comes in three sizes and is available online and in stores starting today for $199.

Original Article at www.tomsguide.com