According to a report over at TheVerge.com, Microsoft's prototype smartwatch testing has be now shifted to the Surface team of the company and sources close to Microsoft suggest that the company is prototyping devices under the Surface team in order to move the device a bit closer to reality.

While it has been testing and prototyping smartwatch designs with the Xbox accessory team for quite some time, the new device will apparently have a Surface connector and 1.5-inch screen that company has recently requested from component manufacturers.

Other reports suggested that the smartwatch could end up with a version of a removable wrist band that will be available in various colors as well as an interesting detail that Microsoft housing the device in the Oxynitride Aluminum case, also known as the "translucent aluminum", which is more harder than glass but also expensive.

According to details, Microsoft is testing the device with a modified version of the Windows 8 OS and according to Amongtech.com site, which was pretty much the source of all recent Microsoft smartwatch rumors, some prototypes included 6GB of storage space, with high level of cloud storage integration, and LTE support.

In any case, it looks like every company wants a piece of the smartwatch market and, by the end of this year and early next year, we could be flooded with various products and multiple choices.

Source: TheVerge.com, Amongtech.com.