Misfit enters the colorful smart bulb fray with the $50 Bolt
Misfit's moving beyond health and sleep tracking. With Bolt, a $50 smart lightbulb that can change colors like Philips' Hue bulbs, it's beginning to connect your home. Bolt produces the same amount of light as a typical 60-watt bulb, and you can use Misfit's app to choose from different colors. The app offers a variety of color scenes, which can change the mood of your room by manipulating multiple Bolts at once (as demonstrated below). It also works together with Misfit's Shine wearable and Beddit sleep tracker to wake you up with a simulated sunrise. While it looks like many other smart bulbs on the market (it's powered by Cree's LEDs), Misfit is hoping to differentiate itself by offering something more affordable and easier to use. To get started with Philips color-changing Hue Bulbs, for example, you'd have to throw down $200 for a starter pack with three bulbs and a wireless bridge. With Bolt, which is also available for pre-order today, you can start with just a single $50 bulb that's controlled directly over WiFi.
"We want to do more in the house, because if you actually have to wear something, you're almost at a disadvantage," Sonny Vu, Misfit's CEO and co-founder, told us. He also hinted that the company could eventually make products for cars. It wasn't hard to tell that Misfit's focus was expanding -- it recently dropped the "Wearables" term from its name, and we're now seeing other connected-gadget companies like Nest and Wink working harder to court partners. Maybe this is the year we'll finally be able to take the term "Internet of Things" seriously.
