Microsoft Band was an intelligent edge device before that was even a thing. But being too early wasn’t the problem this time. Instead, the problem with Microsoft Band is that the software giant was never serious about this product, and that was never going to change. That it failed was inevitable, and only a matter of time.

Brad already wrote an overview of the Band’s short history. Here, I’d like to reflect on the experience of using both generations of Microsoft’s most recent wearable platform---let’s not forget the SPOT watch, folks---and of watching the firm once again briefly lead a new consumer market technologically before just quietly giving up on it as reliability and quality issues emerged and scuttled the successes.