Microsoft Boosts Internet Of Things Team With Wearable Tease

Microsoft is tooling up for a big push into the Internet of Things (IoT), a run on new hires to the team suggests, with hints that consumer tech like wearables and automotive could be on the agenda. The company has been relatively quiet on its plans for computing as it spreads beyond PCs, tablets, phones, and consoles, though the IoT technology could work alongside Microsoft's previous research into HomeOS, a home automation system.

The IoT division, formerly the Microsoft Embedded team ZDNet says, has been bolstered by transfers from former Azure Engineering and Visual Studio managers according to LinkedIn profiles. Steve Teixeira, for instance, shifted from Visual Studio to take up a new role as director of program management in the IoT team.

However, it's a tidbit in former Windows Azure Engineering group program manager Jonathan Smith's profile which has prompted the most speculation. Smith is now group program manager in the Microsoft IoT team.

The newly enlarged division is working on "the operating systems and cloud services that power non-PC/tablet/phone/console 'things' such as industry devices, wearables, automobiles, consumer electronics, etc." Smith's description reads. "We enable intelligent systems to be built from these things across a broad range of industry verticals."

Microsoft may be keeping quiet on its longer-term plans for the IoT, but that hasn't stopped the company from progressively bolstering its development. Back in late 2013, former Kinect "visionary" Alex Kipman was rumored to be working on Microsoft's software and/or services for wearable tech and other "new devices".

Meanwhile, there's also Microsoft's "Lab Of Things" project, an attempt to better position HomeOS as the central hub for homes and offices.