You have probably heard of “Misfit” being bantered around these parts. 2014 has been a good year for the tech company with their range of activity tracker bracelets selling quite well. This is partly because they are cheap compared to other wearables but also because they don’t cram other features into the device like we see with smartwatches. They just do what they claim and actually do it rather well. For instance, the Misfit Flash is a fitness tracker and priced at only $50. As such fitness trackers are the bread and butter of their business model. However, that may be about to change in 2015.
It was very recently reported that Misfit had secured a good deal of funding (to the sum of $40 million) and some of the investors are familiar names, like Xiaomi and JD.com (one of the biggest retailers in China). It now though, seems that the funding from these two companies in particular is only half of what they are bringing to the table for Misfit. In a recent interview with Re/code the CEO of Misfit, Sonny Vu has outlined the company’s future vision and it makes for interesting reading. First off, the fitness trackers are only part of the equation. The funding secured by Misfit will partly be used to continue the fitness tracker range. However, in addition, Misfit have two more tricks up their sleeve. The first of these is what is being dubbed “advanced wearables”. Although details on this was limited the term itself is enough to suggest more feature-prone wearable devices. The second of these newer Misfit additions will be ‘smart home’ products. During the interview Vu did not elaborate on any details of what products would be offered, but did say that they will release a number of smart home products over the new few quarters (basically next year).
On a last note and as already mentioned, it seems Xiaomi and JD might have a bit of an active hand in the future direction of Misfit. During the interview Vu was noted saying “Xiaomi knows how to scale, they understand supply chains” suggesting Xiaomi may be offering some form of an advisory role to Misfit. Adding to this, and in terms of JD, Vu also stated “People like the stuff that we’ve got, but we need to get more products out, and faster” alluding to maybe a more reciprocal relationship with the Chinese retailer in the future. Either way it does seem the future is looking bright for Misfit and we can expect to see a number of new products and lines emerging from the company. Are you a Misfit customer? What do you think of the new lines? Let us know.