Microsoft Band – Time for Plan B

Ten months ago, I treated myself to a Microsoft Band 2 for Christmas. A combination of fitness band and smartwatch, I really like the functions that it offers. However, a brilliant idea has been let down horribly by poor hardware quality. I’m currently on my third example – the first two developed splits in the straps.

Microsoft could have learned from this, and produced a third version to address the product failings – it’s always been said, apocryphally, that Microsoft needs three goes to get anything right. Instead, Microsoft has thrown in the towel, withdrawn the Band 2 from the market, and announced that it has no plans for a Band 3.

I think it’s a real shame. I do like the Band 2, and I was looking forward to see what a Band 3 would be like. It would seem that Microsoft has blinked, rather than push the envelope. So Microsoft Band will join the list of products that Microsoft has failed: Zune, Windows Home Server, Windows Phone. And I can’t help feeling that they failed, not because of any fundamental shortcomings in the products themselves, but because Microsoft failed to deliver what it needed to do to get the products established in the market.

I need to plan for what I will get as the successor for my Band 2 when it finally kicks the bucket. I suspect it will be a Garmin vivosmart HR+ – this seems to be the closest match in functionality to the Band 2.

Thanks a bunch, Microsoft – you’ve failed me yet again.