Ugly? For me it's one of the best designs for a smartwatch (I think Samsung or Sony also have this "band" design), not the big clunky watches that were released this year.

And they embraced their difference. It's not a luxury e-watch. Very little to no skeumorphism. And the vertical layout fitting the tiles list... very very nice derivation of the Metro language. Felt right at first sight.

I'm in agreement. I really like the way this looks.

I agree. It looks like something out of a scifi movie that tries to be trendy, which is a good thing in this case.

I actually see this as a great fitness tracker (that is why I might buy it) but I don't see it as a smart watch (and I'm not complaining about that).

In order to be a smart watch it would need to do more "smart" things such as showing notifications, interacting with third-party apps, etc. If you have a Windows Phone you can talk to cortana so it's the closest thing to a smart phone you can get on that OS, but still it's clearly not as powerful as what Android Wear and probably Apple Watch can do.

>> "but I don't see it as a smart watch"

Neither does MS. I read an interview with one of the product leads on The Verge and he said it is not a smart watch. He envisions you continue wearing your watch on one are and this primarily as a fitness tracker and productivity device on the other.

The thing is that this seems to have all of the most useful features of nearly all current smartwatches. If it can deliver text, Hangouts, email, and calendar notifications to your wrist as claimed, then that alone accounts for the majority of smartwatch usage. The Cortana integration accounts for nearly the rest, though unfortunately that's only available with a Windows Phone. Here's to hoping that it will be possible to add Google Now support for Android phones.

> but still it's clearly not as powerful as what Android Wear and probably Apple Watch can do.

What do you mean? What is it that they do that this will not do? I think Microsoft should have just marketed it as a watch. To me it seems to have everything I will need in a smartwatch.

I think trying not to fall into the category of "smartwatch" is the point, marketing tactic if you will. The smartwatch is the new wave, and the companies you would expect are jumping on board. By not marketing as a smartwatch they set themselves apart, yet have some of the key functionality people are looking for

I think it does show notifications.

It does.

What do you mean by "It's insane how much harm a single man can do"?

I assume he's referring to Steve Ballmer.

Haha is that sarcasm? Do you mean harm ==== good, or harm === bad? And harm to who?

EDIT: No idea why I am getting downvoted - it's a serious question!

As nbuggia pointed out above, it's likely he's talking about the circus that was Microsoft under Ballmer.