English
A sports watch without software is just a timepiece. Well-built software integrates the watch into the user’s life. In addition to manufacturing high-quality sports watches, Suunto has built a robust app infrastructure around them. With a reliable watch ecosystem, Suunto’s products go wherever their customers go. Be it the North Pole, under the sea or the Finnish forest.
To enhance their user experience, Suunto wanted to allow users to use their favourite sports apps on their watches. To achieve this, Buutti’s consultant Miro worked on the team building Suunto’s sports app infrastructure. Miro describes his experience: ”The team was laid-back and supportive. At the same time, they were true professionals.”
During two years of development, the team achieved their goals of building the SuuntoPlus app infrastructure. The service was published in tandem with their new high-end Vertical watch and it has been deployed to all Suunto watches around the world. Suunto Vertical has received favourable reviews and now its functionality can be extended even further with third-party applications.
The main technologies were JavaScript and C++, but Miro also worked with a bit of Rust and Python. The main challenges were related to memory and performance optimization. There was also quite a significant contribution to the motion sensor algorithms used in the watch. Miro used his knowledge of high-level mathematics and tested the algorithms himself on the basketball court and cross-country ski track.
Other Buuttians know Miro as a good programmer because he can think for himself. ”Miro has excellent media literacy. He doesn’t just take advice or instructions without questioning them first.” Suunto also noticed this independent thinking: ”Miro voiced his opinions boldly and helped us make better architectural choices,” Suunto’s Head of Partner Product Management Janne Kallio says. ”Buutti’s consultant was a great addition to our team.”
You can learn more about SuuntoPlus here: www.Suunto.com/suuntoplus
If you want to develop your own app to Suuntoplus, start here: www.suunto.com/welcomepartners
