Switched On: The smartwatch Microsoft needed yesterday

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The announcement of Steve Ballmer's impending retirement from Microsoft cast a spotlight on the company's transition to becoming a devices and services company. While it's unclear how progress toward this goal will be measured, the success model for the "devices" part of its quest is Apple. (Indeed, Apple, leading with iCloud, is seeking to diversify into more of a "devices and services" company itself.) Apple's cu...