Thursday, October 30, 2014

I’m With The Band, But Not Quite Yet

Calendar

Yesterday evening, the news broke about the new Microsoft Band, the new life/fitness/health wearable from Microsoft. I don’t want to go heavily into the features on the Band yet as I haven’t had hands on experience with one yet, but, the idea is brilliant. That said, I won’t be one of the first to sport one of the Microsoft Bands for one reason – they priced it too high.

With great options out there, and better compatibility with more platforms, companies like FitBit, Jawbone and the various “watch” wareable makers are really head of the curve here. While the Microsoft Band does more, and honestly, probably does it better, the $200 street price for a product aimed at a target audience of 3% is pretty ballsy. Yes, I just said ballsy on that one.

So, what exactly does that $200 investment get you? It’s a health tracking, workout notifying, email reading monster that fits on your wrist and talks to your phone. It’s a Cortana activating, heart rate tracking, calendar displaying beast that can almost eliminate the need to remove your phone from your pocket. It seems that good. That said, how well does it really do everything that it is supposed to, and how long until the clones hit?

I’ll be honest here, the Microsoft Band is exactly what I have been looking for as I begin to start my weight loss plan. It is perfect for what I want as a Windows Phone user. Overall, I think I am their ideal client for the Microsoft Band. Unfortunately, the $200 price tag is just too aggressive for me, and my bet is many others. If this was a tested technology, a generation 4 item, that was proven, the $200 premium price might be an easier justification. For me, it just puts it about $100 more than a FitBit or something like that.

That said, the Microsoft Band is an amazing piece of technology. It really does do it all, and chances are, I’ll end up eventually getting one for my wrist. It just makes sense to me and if it works as well as it looks like it does, it will be the perfect add on to my Windows family.

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