Having recently debuted its first wearable in the form of the Microsoft Band, Redmond is clearly betting on this burgeoning area of tech, and it's got much bigger plans ahead.
The latest word is that Microsoft is planning a wearable device that will be tightly integrated with the Xbox One, and it's hoping it launch it next year.
The news comes from Joe Officer, head of Xbox One component supplier Exertis, who told PCR: "The wearable market is always growing and we can expect to see Microsoft rolling out a spate of devices next year in this space."
Something up its sleeve
He went on: "These will be linked to the Xbox One which has loads of health and fitness apps already in it. Add that to real time heart rate monitors, health bands, scales and video sensors and users will have day in, day out, real time monitoring of themselves."
This news is unsurprising for two reasons. First, the Xbox One has a pretty decent raft of fitness features, aided by the console's now-optional Kinect sensor, and integrating this with the Microsoft Health platform makes a lot of sense.
But second, many months ago we heard rumours that the Xbox team was busy working on a smartwatch at Redmond. While those rumours may have appeared to be quashed by the announcement of the Band, it seems that Microsoft may have had multiple wearables up its sleeve this whole time.
Via Wareable
