Jake Dyson says new products must be radically different

Dyson’s first toothbrush, the CameraJet, marks a move from personal care into oral care. In an interview with TechRadar, Jake Dyson, the company’s chief engineer and son of founder James Dyson, explained how the brand decides which new products to pursue.

“The first product has to be radically different” and show a performance advantage over competitors “by a magnitude,” Jake said. He pointed to the launch of the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer in 2016 as an example of a product entering a market that had seen little change for decades.

The CameraJet has a camera that streams a live view of the mouth and is designed to identify gaps between teeth and direct water or mouthwash at them for flossing. Jake said it must work properly before launch, adding that it could have been released two years earlier but would not have reached every gap reliably.

After the interview, reports of faults from early CameraJet users appeared. Dyson attributed them to an isolated production issue that it said was under control.

Jake said Dyson plans to enter new categories with multiple products and expand them quickly. He also described reusing technologies across products, including mechanics and a battery system developed for the Airwrap that also feature in the Supersonic, a hot brush, the PencilVac and the PencilMop. He said this cross-pollination happens naturally and can reveal technologies the company still needs to develop.