UK release

Jcmg62

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I appreciate this may have been asked a few times already but when are we likely to see this device outside the US? I spoke with a Microsoft UK rep back in November last year who was absolutely convinced it would be available in the UK before Christmas 2014.......clearly not the case. As a minimum it would be nice if Microsoft would at least discuss time frames for international release.
 

Pete

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Nov 12, 2012
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Yes, I'm sure lots of people are wanting this. Hope it's going to be soon. I'll ask around at MWC next week.
 

Jcmg62

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That would be great Pete. Any news you could bring back would be a massive step forward as MS UK are as in the dark about this as everyone else. My wrist demands some Band action (that sounds sooo wrong I know but couldn't help myself)
 

Muessig

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Nice to see we have a mole at mwc to ask the peoples questions!

See if you can get any dirt on a Sony or other big manufacturer coming to wp.
 

markfive

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Hey Muessig, remember me lol?

​I've just today received an MS Band in the UK (courtesy of BigAppleBuddy.com) and I'm simply amazed that MS haven't yet released this outside the US yet. Hopefully they are just holding back for a v2 with a few tweaks to be announced at MWC. At work I'm surrounded by people with Pebbles, Fitbits, Samsung watches and so on. Geek city ;) To say they've all been looking at the Band today with dropped jaws is an understatement. More than one person is talking about ordering one.
 

Jcmg62

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Hey Muessig, remember me lol?

​I've just today received an MS Band in the UK (courtesy of BigAppleBuddy.com) and I'm simply amazed that MS haven't yet released this outside the US yet. Hopefully they are just holding back for a v2 with a few tweaks to be announced at MWC. At work I'm surrounded by people with Pebbles, Fitbits, Samsung watches and so on. Geek city ;) To say they've all been looking at the Band today with dropped jaws is an understatement. More than one person is talking about ordering one.

Hi markfive, could I ask approximately how much you paid for it and how long you waited for it to arrive? I've looked at bigapplebuddy myself but wasn't sure how it worked.

Also, is the band uk compatible? As in, do the apps and Cortana functionality work in the uk? My concern was specifically to do with cortana. I'm running the uk version on my 1520 and assuming the band would run the US version. Is that the case?

Thanks for any feedback��
 

Teeceman

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I've had mine in the UK for a few months via the ebay route and it's a superb device once you get used to wearing it, and now the web dashboard is here I can only imagine the whole experience getting better and better.

There are some issues that have to be worked on that are well documented on this site, but I'm sure that if/when version 2 arrives I for one will be buying that too.... so far very impressed with Band v1.
 

markfive

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It cost me $307 all in, including Fedex delivery. Ordered on Tuesday and it arrived Thursday. Everything works fine, Cortana, notifications, syncing. Just change region to US to get the MS Health app, and then change back to UK once its installed. Then everything just works. I have no complaints, for a v1 product its great.
 

Pete

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I didn't manage to get much information on the Band at MWC I'm afraid. I saw one being demonstrated and some of the features explained by someone who uses one (American, obviously).

The guys I spoke to seemed to genuinely not know when the Band would be released outside of the US. When talking with Microsoft people face to face, there's a definite difference in body langauge between "I don't know" ("we know but we can't tell you") and "I don't know" ("I really don't know").
 

Jcmg62

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I'm beginning to think it's not destined to be a mainstream, global product. Maybe it's intention was to showcase the health platform and other hardware innovations for partners to follow. Then again, wasn't that the intention with the Surface Pro 3 and look how well that's done. I sometimes get the feeling that MS stumble on products that end up doing well then struggle to build the logistics around the product to get it moving.

At any rate, with the Apple Sport Edition watch on the horizon and a confirmed global release date in the bag, I strongly suspect MS are going to lose out. Microsoft could have used the past 4 months to really push the band. If they'd managed to get it on the wrists of enough iphone and android users maybe they could have secured a few more converts to the windows ecosystem. Oh well......
 

hotphil

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Maybe it's intention was to showcase the health platform and other hardware innovations for partners to follow.
That's exactly it. The units they produced were to showcase the technology and the analytical engines behind it. The plan being to not charge much/anything for OEM's to incorporate the tech into their own wearables.
Think of Band as a platform rather than a device.
But no OEM has taken up the offer. And MS are stuck with a small inventory of technology demonstrators. And with no partner willing to get tooled up and help meet the demand for the tech, MS are in the position of not being able to/caring about meeting the demand.
 

Pete

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As far as I'm aware, Band is intended for more markets than just the USA. As you're aware, there's been supply &demand issues with it. I imagine that once the manufacturing volume is at an acceptable level, things will push forwards.
 

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