Misfit, which began life as a Kickstarter and became one of the best known wearables companies, was bought yesterday by a big public watch company for $230 million. That was probably its best possible end as an independent company. Misfit, over its four years of life, had raised $63 million in three rounds of funding. The products are beautiful and have a loyal following. … [Read more...]
Why Wearables Makers Should Get Into The Content Business Today
You may not see the intersection of ESPN and fitness trackers, but it's there -- and if you make trackers, there's an opportunity to be had RIGHT NOW. There's a guy named Joe Pulizzi who runs something called the Content Marketing Institute. If you want to tell your brand story with content -- and not only should you, you have to -- Joe's pretty much the world's living … [Read more...]
Garmin Rounds Out Holiday Line with New Scale and Tracker
Garmin last week rolled out three new GPS watches; this week, it finish its introductions with a new vivosmart tracker and a connected scale. The vivosmart HR (the missing capital letter is how they want it spelled) is an update to its current touchscreen fitness tracker. The major change is the incorporation of an internally developed always-on heart rate monitor -- the … [Read more...]
Garmin Debuts New Top-End Forerunner Running Watch
Garmin is best known for its excellent GPS fitness trackers. Now, the company is getting set for the holiday season with a new top-line runners' watch and another unit adds a built-in heart-rate monitor for the first time. The Forerunner 630 is billed as having the company's "most advanced running watch technology." Among the new measurements the 630 can track are stride … [Read more...]
IDC Puts Fitbit Number 1 in Trackers, with Xiaomi in Second
IDC says Fitbit is the world's top vendor of fitness trackers for the first quarter of 2015, with Chinese Xiaomi in a strong second thanks to its $15 Mi Band. Overall, the world market for trackers was 11.4 million, up 200 percent from the year previous. IDC analysts say that 40 percent of trackers sold in the first quarter sold for under $100 -- not surprising given the … [Read more...]
CES Day 1: New Garmin Smartwatch Updates
Garmin changed up its smartwatch line at CES, introducing three new devices. The Vivoactive is the most watch-like of them, a lightweight GPS-enabled watch with running and golf apps. It pairs with other fitness devices such as heart-rate monitors. It'll ship this quarter for $250. The epix is less a fitness device than a GPS map on your wrist. With a 1.4-inch color … [Read more...]
Oakley Revs Airwave Goggle, Adds Garmin Camera Interface
One of our favorite bits of wearables is the Airwave goggle from Oakley -- basically an already high-end ski goggle with a heads-up display from Recon inserted in the right lens. Oakley tells us today that there's an upgrade for this year: the ability to control a Garmin VIRB Elite action camera through the Airwave's glove interface. You also can apparently monitor the … [Read more...]
CES: Garmin Announces Vivofit Fitness Band
You probably think of Garmin as a GPS company with some high-end wristware. They're making a move down-market with the Vivofit fitness band. It looks a lot like a Fitbit Force, but the Vivifit has a larger display (not unlike a Fuelband). Unique in the category, the Vivofit claims to learn your activity patterns and set goals based on that, upping them as your fitness … [Read more...]