Microsoft has just announced that it will be launching Microsoft Band, its fitness wearable device which will work along with a new Microsoft Health fitness tracking service.

Microsoft Band will go on sale tomorrow on Microsoft’s online store, and its retail outlets for $199. It is not clear if the device will be available only in the U.S. or in other countries as well.

Microsoft Band will come with 10 sensors including an optical heart rate monitor and UV sensor, which will help you keep track of things like your heart rate, steps, calories burned, and sleep. Here’s a brief overview of the sensors in Microsoft Band:

Data from sensors in your Microsoft Band, combined with the info you provide in your profile, are used to give you valuable info about your activity levels. The sensors in your Microsoft Band work together to collect data and calculate a single data point like calories burned or distance run. Turning on optional sensors can improve the accuracy of these calculations, but you’ll get useful info even when some sensors are turned off.

Optical heart rate monitor

Your Microsoft Band continuously monitors and reports your current heart rate. Measurements of the fluctuations in your heart rate help add quality to your calories burned measurements and to performance stats that you get when you track runs, workouts, and sleep. See Track your heart rate for more info.

Accelerometer/Gyrometer

The accelerometer/gyrometer in your band detects motion. This info is used to calculate things like number of steps taken, which can be combined with info from your profile and heart rate measurements to estimate how many calories you burn throughout the day or during a workout. For info on tracking these measurements, see Track your calories burned, Track your exercise, and Track your steps.

Motion and heart rate also indicate periods of restful and light sleep. For more info, see Track your sleep.

GPS

When you turn GPS on during distance travel activities like running, hiking, or biking, it records your route, and collects info about the distance you’ve travel. When you sync your band with your phone, you’ll find a map of your route in the Microsoft Health app so you can retrace your favorite routes later.

GPS data is also used to refine distance and speed calculations. Use the Run Tile to start and stop GPS tracking. For more info on the GPS, see Using GPS mapping.

Microphone

Use the built-in microphone to speak to Cortana, your personal digital assistant (available only on Windows Phone 8.1 Update). The microphone is near the left side of the touchscreen. When Cortana’s enabled on both your phone and on your band, just press and hold the action button, and speak into the mic. See Using Cortana for more info.

Ambient Light Sensor

Info from the ambient light sensor can be used to adjust the brightness of your touchscreen display automatically. To use this feature, set Brightness to Auto Set. Here’s how:
From the Me Tile on your band, swipe left, and tap Settings The Settings Tile > Brightness Brightness settings icon.

Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors

The GSR sensor measures the conductivity of your skin between the GSR sensor under the clasp and the secondary GSR contact point under the face of your Microsoft Band. This tells your Microsoft Band whether you’re wearing it, so it can adjust how it monitors your activities.

UV sensor

Get a snapshot of the UV level where you are by tapping the UV Tile, so you can decide if you need sunscreen, a hat, or maybe a few hours indoors.

Microsoft Health, the new cloud based service will use data from Microsoft Band and other services.

Microsoft Health can also measure your work life and can, for example, determine how a long meeting with the boss might have affected your night’s sleep. Other features include access to Facebook and Twitter, as well as weather and stocks.

Microsoft Band will also come with a free companion app called Microsoft Band Sync, which will be available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It  will allow you to personalize Microsoft Band such as changing the background etc. Microsoft will also release an app for Microsoft Health which will  give you the complete picture of your daily stats—including steps, distance, calories burned, sleep, heart rate and more.

The company hopes to add more features in the future and is currently working with MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, Jawbone and Starbucks, and also plans to release a software development kit in January.

It’s working with a bunch of partners, including MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, Jawbone and Starbucks, with the latter allowing users to pay for their coffee with a gift card barcode on the watch.

Microsoft Band doesn’t seem to be a direct competitor to Apple Watch as it falls in the same category as wearables like Fibit’s fitness trackers, but it does offer most of the health tracking features that will be available in Apple’s smartwatch. One of the biggest advantage of Microsoft’s Band is that it spans all mobile platforms, and not restricted to a single platform like Apple Watch, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear line, Moto 360.

Let me know your thoughts on Microsoft Band in the comments below.