Vacuums, hair dryers… toothbrushes? I asked Jake Dyson how the brand decides what gets to be a Dyson product

It had been a while since Dyson had genuinely surprised us with a product launch, but then the brand unveiled its first toothbrush.

Dyson is already a familiar name in personal care, thanks to its now well established hair-styling gadgets, so a move into oral care wasn't entirely left-field.

Still, when the CameraJet made its debut, it was still quite the swerve – taking Dyson from the dressing table to the bathroom sink.

The first product has to be radically different... otherwise we wouldn't consider it Jake Dyson When I caught up with Jake Dyson — son of founder, James, and Dyson's chief engineer — at the brand's Unveiled event, I wanted to know what prompted such a move.

And, more broadly, how a brand might end up with such a twisty, turny product roadmap. (For clarity, throughout this article I'll be using "Dyson" to mean the brand, and "Jake" to mean the person.) So, if a toothbrush can become a Dyson gadget, is there anything that couldn't be? "No, it doesn't," Jake declares.

"It has to be radically different." He expands: "The first product has to be radically different, and have performance claims, and a difference against a competitor by a magnitude; otherwise, we wouldn't consider it." Remember when every hair dryer didn't look like this? (Image credit: Future) In short, the brand isn't interested in having a go at anything; it wants to make a splash in markets that have grown stagnant.

The launch of the first Dyson Supersonic hair dryer in 2016 is a great example — it blew new life into a market that had barely seen change in decades.

And the CameraJet is far from your average toothbrush.

It's kitted out with a camera that will stream a live view of the inside of your mouth back to you, and is trained to recognize gaps in your teeth and shoot water/mouthwash at them, to take care of flossing.

Whether or not it enjoys the success of the Supersonic remains to be seen, but it certainly checks that "radically different" box.

Striving for perfection The potential to shake things up is essential, but before a new-category product is launched, other criteria must be met.

"It's got to work properly," asserts Jake.

"I mean, we probably could have launched [the CameraJet] two years ago, but it wouldn't have hit every gap perfectly, and that's not acceptable." If we're going to go into a new area, then we'll do that knowing that we've got more products behind it Jake Dyson It's unfortunate then that shortly after our conversation, reports of CameraJet faults began rolling in from early adopters.

Dyson has blamed this on an isolated production issue that's now under control, so I'll give the company the benefit of the doubt in this instance.