American wearable device maker Misfit has made its debut in India, through an exclusive tie-up with Snapdeal. Misfit was co-founded by former PepsiCo and Apple CEO, John Sculley. The company makes wearable devices like fitness and activity trackers.
Misfit is the newest company to foray into the rapidly growing wearable device market in India. Misfit CFO & COO, Christy Le said at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) held in Bengaluru, that the company will be selling its range of activity trackers online, exclusively via Snapdeal. It also plans to sell from retail outlets in a couple of months. Indian consumers have a wide range of activity and fitness trackers to choose from between established brands as well as startups. These include Xiaomi’s Mi Band, the GetActive Tapp, GOQii band, the Fitbit Charge devices and even Jawbone's Up series.
While most Fitness trackers in the country, focus on the health aspect, Misfit wants to position itself as a lifestyle apparel as well. The seeks to team up with popular apparel labels and utilise their brand value to sell its devices. “We would like to build a community of users in India for our products, who will be sort of evangelists and also provide us with valuable inputs,” Le said.
Misfit was founded in 2011 by Sonny Vu, John Sculley and Sridhar Iyengar, co-founder and former CTO of AgaMatrix. John Sculley on the other hand is well known for his stint with Apple. In addition, he co-founded Obi Mobiles as well. Incidentally, Misfit was incorporated on the very day that Jobs passed away. A slogan from Apple’s 1997 advertising campaign, “Think Different” was the basis of the company’s naming. It went, "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes." The company has a presence in 50 countries around the world. Although headquartered in the US, a majority of their workforce is based in Asia. Till date, Misfit has managed to sell a million of their wearable devices.
Misfit has recently launched the Link, a smart fitness tracker that also doubles up as a remote control for your smartphone. It can be used as a remote shutter for camera, control music and advance slides in presentation through the Misfit Link app.