Update: The cancelled Moonraker prototype is pictured AGAIN
Remember the curious tale of the Nokia Moonraker – the Windows Phone smartwatch that was cancelled in 2014?
It really is the rumour that just won’t die.
Earlier this year in January, these unflattering images below turned up on Chinese social media site Weibo. They show the square display of the Lumia-esque smartwatch, complete with charging pins on the back.
Now Evan Blass, he of many (later confirmed) rumours has been sharing a “bonus” GIF of the smartwatch, here in the bright green model. It doesn’t tell us much new, though Ubergizmo pointed out there’s no heart rate monitor.
Bonus: Microsoft Moonraker (dead) [first reported: https://t.co/ligsXkFocK] pic.twitter.com/epT8T3uDyL
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 8, 2016
Originally uncovered in June 2015 by leak master Blass, the Nokia Moonraker smartwatch was apparently in a prototype stage when it was shown off at MWC 2014 in Barcelona. The plan was to launch it alongside the Lumia 930 smartphone.
However, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile arm and cancelled the project in favour of the Microsoft Band. Lucky us, eh?
The Moonraker smartwatch would have packed in calendar update, emails, texts, step counting, a camera remote control, Nokia’s Mix Radio app and third party notifications from the likes of Facebook.
The in-the-wild photos don’t really do it justice – it looked a lot more exciting in the purported marketing images discovered on a Microsoft design employee’s Tumblr.
Essential reading: The wearables that never made it out in 2015
The Nokia smartwatch dream might not yet be over, however. As part of a restructuring of the company, Nokia plans to amend its Articles of Association to include “mobile devices and consumer wearables and other electronics.”
Additional rumours suggested that Nokia (even after the acquisition) was working on a wearable prototype technology based on the company’s Kinect and Morph research. So it’s possible that Nokia already has something in the pipeline that we could see launch at some point in 2016.
