If you were excited about Fossil’s highly publicized entrance into the wearable space a few weeks ago, things just got A LOT more interesting. Fossil has acquired Misfit, the makers of the very popular Flash and Shine activity trackers. The acquisition is valued at $260 million and will shift Misfit’s CEO, Sonny Vu, to Fossil’s CTO. It isn’t known exactly how Misfit and their products / IPs will be integrated into their new parent company, but Misfit has built a reputation for producing small, capable, inexpensive, and durable activity trackers, powered by relatively (compared to Fossil) mature phone apps. This expertise could be used by Fossil to help catapult the quality and capabilities of the company’s devices and software. It is not known how the acquisition will effect Misfit’s day-to-day operations or their current lineup of products; for the time being, I would not expect any significant changes.
Short term, I would look for elements of Misfit’s apps to be migrated into the Fossil Q app. Additionally I would expect to see key device firmware features such as Misfit’s auto-sleep-sensing algorithms make their way into the current Fossil wearable lineup. But we are most excited to see what future products are created from this acquisition. Misfit has some of the most distinctive looking wearable devices on the market. It would be fantastic to see some of the unique aesthetics from Misfit incorporated into future Fossil products. The Shine 2 is not only stunning though, it is also more featured pack than practically any wearable in its price point. This could bode particularly well for future Fossil Q Reveler and Dreamer models.
