Microsoft's health revolution is here, starting with a $199 fitness tracker

This is a bit confusing to me.

From the article "Rather than just use the accelerometer to count steps, the Band combines that data with your phone’s GPS data and the always-on heart-rate monitor to figure out the length of your strides, which provides a much more accurate measurement of calories burned."

If there is on-board gps, why does the MS band need gps data from the phone ?

Interesting, if the band will work well with all platforms. Interface looks cool. Seems kinda late to the game, but who knows...