What has bugged me about the last few years wave of ‘smartwatches’ is this: I had one of these in 2007:
Sony Ericsson MBW-150, designed by Fossil. Had a third party Windows Mobile 6.5 app by guys from the wonderfully named SmartMadSoft site, and did the following:
- caller ID for incoming calls with vibrate - and a one click button to hang up. Haven’t had a ringtone since then
- controlled the music playback on my phone without taking it out of my pocket
- showed first line or two of incoming SMS/email
Nearly 10 years ago. Cost me about £170, then a year or so later the OLED display faded and died, and I bought a ‘replica’ from China for £35.
Now, I love my Microsoft Band, but it’s good to see a watch that’s a watch plus some smarts again. There does seem to have been a race to jam way too much functionality into a lot of these devices.
