14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft might be exploring the smart earbuds market with a project of its own that would eventually compete with Apple’s AirPods launched one year and a half ago.
Currently in patent stage, Microsoft’s idea would push the concept of super-portable earbuds one step further, bringing several new features that could indeed gain the software giant the lead in this yet unexplored side of the market.
The term killer, however, wouldn’t make any sense if Microsoft wasn’t planning something truly advanced to make the AirPods look obsolete, and by the looks of things, this is what the software giant is planning to do.
According to the abstract section of the patent, Microsoft wants its smart earbuds to be able to do all kinds of things, like measuring body temperature with a sensor integrated into one of the earbuds. This would technically push the earbuds beyond their standard concept, eventually helping Microsoft expand in the activity tracking business as well, possibly with a future generation.
Notifications and body temperature
At the same time, Microsoft wants its product to be able to issue notifications to the wearer, like for new email arriving in a certain app on the phone, and to also connect to other Microsoft devices, such as the Xbox gaming console.
“In one embodiment the wearable audio accessory provides a speech based interface between the user and a nearby computing device for the performance of user-initiated or computing device initiated microtasks which they describe as asking for the weather, how your stock is doing today, what’s the traffic like, make a note / reminder, make a call and so forth,” the patent reads.
Certainly, this sounds like a super-exciting product that Microsoft could release, but since it’s still in patent stage, there’s absolutely no guarantee that it would ever see daylight. Projects like this one come and go, and Microsoft would only release its own AirPods-like device if the company sees it as a possible source of revenue in the long term.