Misfit are on something of a roll, having recently released the Shine 2, which in the words of Sonny Vu, Misfit’s Chief Executive Officer, is close to the perfect activity tracker and wearable device. However, the rationale behind releasing the Shine 2 was so that the perfectionists within his team could finish what they started making. He says: “We were focused on getting all of the details right that we didn’t get right for Shine. People still buy it, they like the iconic design, but this takes the device to the next level.” The second generation Shine model is ten percent thinner and contains a low power vibration motor and colored lights. It also incorporates link smart home controls and a redesigned application too. Misfit also improved the design by using a better capacitive touch sensor, so that the double tap gesture is quicker, and ensuring a better fit of the Shine 2 into the strap so that it doesn’t fall out so easily. Misfit’s activity and sleep tracking software is going to be available on the Android Wear platform too.
Now that Misfit have built a better activity tracker, they are turning their attentions elsewhere with the promise of two new devices at the Consumer Electronics Show. Sonny hints that whilst activity tracking is great, it is somewhat old fashioned for 2016: “The era of wearable controls is here. Controls, identity, payments, we’re on it. We have a lot of software updates coming in the next six months… We are launching two new wearables at CES and only one of them is an activity tracker. CES is going to be big for us, we are also announcing a new brand partnership there. But I don’t know that we’re going to do anything with a display soon. There just isn’t a display that is low power enough.” It will be an interesting wearable device that Misfit are going to be launching and it is difficult to see how a display-less smartwatch could work.
On the subject of power consumption, Sonny explained that any decision about customers being able to buy the solar powered Swarovski Shine will be up to Swarovski. The normal Swarovski Shine collection has been a successful collaboration between Swarovski and Misfit. He said this on the matter: “The Americans love it because it feels more elegant, more European and Asians absolutely love it. A company like Polar will buy crystals and glue them on. That’s not a Swarovski branded product, they’re selling in their stores. The crystal quality is great and it sells really well.”