Rumours that Microsoft will launch a smartwatch before the end of the year have resurfaced, once again putting the launch date around the end of this month.
According to Forbes, the smartwatch will be launched "within the next few weeks" and will have fitness-monitoring features such as continuous, passive heart rate tracking.
What Microsoft has in mind is seemingly quite different from the smartwatches we've seen so far, and it will be interesting to see if the removable screen idea takes off.
Crucially, unlike rival devices from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, Apple and LG, the Microsoft smartwatch will apparently work with iOS and Android operating systems, as well as Windows Phone.
Forbes' sources also claim the unnamed wearable "will hit stores soon after launch in a bid to capture the lucrative holiday season". If true, this could mean Microsoft will pip Apple to the wearables post as the latter's Apple won't be on sale until next year.
Microsoft first filed a patent for a smartwatch in 2012, but the documentation was only made publicly available this year. The sketches show a wrist-worn device with a removable screen unit that orients itself vertically according to which way it's being held and has icons that seem to indicate distance, heart rate and calories burned.
This isn't Microsoft's first attempt to create a wearable. Back in 2004, the company launched a number of smartwatches based on its SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) technology, in conjunction with Fossil, Swatch, Suunto and Tissot.
The units, which were only sold in North America, used FM radio frequencies to send news headlines, stock reports, weather forecasts and messages from MSN Messenger to the wearer's wrist.
The idea never really took off, though, and after four years it was withdrawn from sale. Transmissions to already sold devices continued until 31 December 2011, when they too ceased.
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