Microsoft Corp. unveiled plans for a portable media player and a radio-linked wristwatch on Wednesday as it tries to move its software from desktops to hands and pockets.
Microsoft Chairman and founder Bill Gates said the market for "smart objects" such as watches that can download data was potentially massive.
"The only screen you carry around with you and you can just glance at is a wrist-sized screen," Gates told Reuters ahead of a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show. "If we get five percent or 10 percent of the people who have watches, it's a huge, huge number."
The smart watches, which recall the futuristic designs once popularized by the comic book crime fighter Dick Tracy, will receive data over FM radio spectrum leased by Microsoft, a system the company calls DirectBand.
The announcements are part of a push by the world's largest software company beyond its stronghold in computer operating systems toward a range of devices such as Tablet PCs, cars, monitors and even exercise bikes.
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News source: Yahoo! News
