It is sometimes inevitable in the tech industry that some concepts and ideas are envisioned but for some reason do not make it to the production line. Some concepts don’t see the light of day, as appears to be the case with Nokia’s canceled Moonraker smartwatch. Yes, the Finnish company dreamt up a smartwatch of its own to complement the Lumia family of smartphones. But Nokia delayed the idea in 2014 when Microsoft acquired its mobile division, leading to the ultimate dropping of the smartwatch concept. What could have been Nokia’s first smartwatch prototype has just surfaced online, thanks to a hands-on video posted on YouTube by Nokibar.
This is not the first time, though, that the smartwatch appeared in leaks. In July of this year, Evan Blass also shared unofficial images of Moonraker via his Twitter account. But the smartwatch shown off in the new video is said to be a production prototype developed by Nokia as it was reportedly close to launching the wearable had it not sold its mobile division to Microsoft. It remains unclear, however, how close the company was to introducing the device, though various leaks and rumors surfaced online when Moonraker was still in its early stages of development. But before you jump in on the video, keep in mind that the smartwatch was being developed three years ago, so do not expect top-of-the-line specs compared to modern smartwatches today. Nonetheless, Moonraker could have been on par with other smartwatches unveiled at the time like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, Sony SmartWatch 2 or Pebble. According to the leaked video, the smartwatch concept had a user interface that was based on swipe motion to pull up notifications and apps. There was also a physical home button.
Had Nokia rolled out the wearable, however, Moonraker would have had a simplistic step tracker compared to other fitness tracking features of modern smartwatches already out in the market. It means the basic step tracking feature would have posed a huge problem to the smartwatch if it launched with that design. But it could have been capable of streamlining smartphone features and supporting notifications for phone calls, messages and emails. Then there were the plastic straps and plain square watch face of Moonraker, which would have nothing on existing wearables today. Nonetheless, it is still a pity that we have not come to see what would have been Nokia’s first foray into the wearable sector.