When it comes to companies that have fallen from their top spots, Nokia is one of the ones that people often think of most, at least in the world of mobile technology, that is. Nokia was once the only brand of cell phone that people would purchase, but with the launch of the iPhone and Android’s dominance, Nokia found it hard to keep up with their ageing Symbian platform. Signing a deal with Microsoft to run Windows Phone exclusively, a deal that some would argue was the end of Nokia as we knew them, ultimately led to their fading away from the smartphone game altogether. While devices that Microsoft launch themselves running Windows Phone are arguably what’s left of Nokia, it’s not the same. One product that Nokia was apparently working on before their smartphone division was sold to Microsoft entirely, was a smartwatch dubbed Moonraker.
We had heard of, and seen pictures of what Moonraker could have been last year, but now an enterprising Twitter user has found more evidence of what Moonraker the watch could have been. An animated GIF that seems to be from a test app pulled from an early Moonraker SDK shows what could have become part of the app that helps users get their smartwatch all set up and configured. It included tips on how to dismiss notifications with a drag to the right, not unlike how they work now in Android Wear, as well as a demonstration of a home button to switch between views. Finally, a gesture of a long press on the home screen would give users the opportunity to see their latest missed notifications on their wrists.
Watch faces that could be created by the user themselves could be created with images on the background and some more customizations applied to them. One of the below wallpapers in the image shared by Twitter users @tfwboredom, lines up with previous images of the Moonraker that had been leaked before, so all of this looks pretty legitimate. While it’s not exactly inspiring to take a look back at what could have been, there’s a certain attraction in doing so, especially for those interested in all aspects of technology.
