Do those MSN SPOT watches stand a chance? Mobile data pundit Alan Reiter says (this) (and this), summarized by BB reader John Troyer:
– They’re big and ugly
– They need to be recharged daily
– They crash and sometimes die when shocked with static electricity
– They have to be turned off on planes
– Coverage is spotty compared to pagers and mobile phones
– News blurbs are 25-word useless snippets
– You have to tell MSN when and where you are traveling for it to work away from your home area!
– Nobody’s *ever* made money selling generic headlines, weather and sports via wireless.
Reiter also says:
“However, syncing with MS Outlook is useful, and Reiter does believe they could catch on if Microsoft repositions to emphasize the fun aspects: downloadable watch faces, games, etc. … [The watches] look as if they were designed by the Borg, on a very bad day. Many years ago Motorola introduced its first pager watch, I was there. I was pretty excited about the product. But when I spoke with a Motorola executive, he said the company wasn’t sure whether the target market would view the device as a smallest, sexiest pager or as the world’s ugliest watch. Unfortunately for Motorola, the view was the latter. Pager watches have generally died quick or lingering deaths. But the operative word is “death.”
Link to earlier BoingBoing entry on MSN SPOT Watches