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Pebble's next step

blog.getpebble.com

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Re: Pebble's next step

#51

Post by iamatworknow »

I was a Kickstarter backer in 2012 and still have my original Pebble. There was a weird screen issue and I wanted to try other things, so I switched to the Gear 2 Neo which was absolute garbage. Then I moved on to the Moto 360, which also left me very disappointed when somehow the rear glass (the part that rests on your wrist) shattered.

So I went back to Pebble and got the Time Steel about a year ago and it's been flawless. Worked with my Note 4 and later (currently) with my iPhone 6S Plus. It's a shame that they're not going to be around anymore for the next time I get an itch to try something new. When this watch quits I'll probably just go back to my Citizen.

Re: Pebble's next step

#52

Post by cillian64 »

gregmac wrote: post #40

> Pebble devices will continue to work as normal. No immediate changes to the Pebble user experience will happen at this time. > Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future. That's very unfortunate. How much of Pebble relies on some online service? Is it still possible to install apps/updates without their infrastructure? For companies that don't open source their stuff by default, it would b…

I recall them having quite a good SDK ( https://developer.pebble.com ) to write your own apps and run basically whatever you wanted on the thing. I hope you can use the SDK to load apps directly, but I'm not sure.

Hopefully the community can run with this and set something up so people can distribute and install apps outside of the official services.

Re: Pebble's next step

#53

Post by TarpitCarnivore »

dijit wrote: post #3

I'd like to know how this happened really. Pebbles were pretty decent and their successful campaigns definitely contributed to the rise of smart watches. But after having two hugely successful crowdfunding campaigns, how did they fail?

> But after having two hugely successful crowdfunding campaigns, how did they fail?

One could argue having to go continuously go back to that well meant they never gained the market traction they were hoping for.

Re: Pebble's next step

#54

Post by forvelin »

their business strategy was terrible. -though, their developer support was awesome-

I still wear my time steel and will get my time 2 refund, but I am surely frustrated by how they screwed all it up. They did not open source any core bits, left with crappy update which drains batteries and openly admitted quality will get worse by time.

note-for-future : don't get into hype trains.

Re: Pebble's next step

#55

Post by europa »

Whenever this kind of things happens. It will make all the more difficult for startups to acquire users because this reiterates "Startups are either going to be acquired and killed or die prematurely".

Re: Pebble's next step

#56

Post by roel_v »

dijit wrote: post #3

I'd like to know how this happened really. Pebbles were pretty decent and their successful campaigns definitely contributed to the rise of smart watches. But after having two hugely successful crowdfunding campaigns, how did they fail?

There are dozens of people on the pictures on the linked pages. You have to sell a lot of $99 watches to pay them all. They say 2 million watches sold; gross margin of - what - $10? $20? Say $40mm margin over the 8 years they mention; staff costs of $5mm/year (50 people, 100k/year including everything - unrealistically low estimate). That doesn't even leave room for other development costs, visits to production factories, returns, everything else. Having done 'a successful crowdfunding campaign' is not an enviable position to be in, most of the time - although of course the vast majority of backers have no experience running a business whatsoever and think 'these guys are sitting on a mountain of money, what can go wrong'.

Re: Pebble's next step

#57

Post by lucaspiller »

rtpg wrote: post #33
sandis wrote: post #10

> Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. That's not very nice.

Also not super legal, probably. I'm sure if you have a problem, you could argue that Fitbit needs to handle it.

This is exactly why FitBit only bought the IP - it means they don't have any legal responsibilities the other company has, such as warranties.

Re: Pebble's next step

#58

Post by dspillett »

rtpg wrote: post #33
sandis wrote: post #10

> Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. That's not very nice.

Also not super legal, probably. I'm sure if you have a problem, you could argue that Fitbit needs to handle it.

Depends exactly what they bought. Those liabilities might be owned by the remaining shell which is now in administation or a vapour-like "parent company" rather than having been transferred to fitbit.

Maybe not moral, but quite probably perfectly legal.

Re: Pebble's next step

#59

Post by Grue3 »

sandis wrote: post #10

> Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. That's not very nice.

I expected the typical "Our Incredible Journey" type spiel, but boy, did that escalate quickly.

Re: Pebble's next step

#60

Post by JonFish85 »

jbrooksuk wrote: post #49
sandis wrote: post #10

> Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. That's not very nice.

I'm surprised by this, Pebble and Fitbit always seemed like upstanding companies. To me, this is a dick move. They could've said "reach out to Fitbit instead".

Dick move, maybe. But when you have no money, you're limited in what you can do. As a separate cousin-post said, this is why Fitbit bought some assets, but ultimately they probably didn't get stuck with any liability (e.g. warranty issues and the like). Business-wise, that's probably the absolute right move to make.
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