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Pebble's next step

blog.getpebble.com

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Re: Pebble's next step

#321

Post by qwrusz »

TillE wrote: post #275
qwrusz wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not really an issue with what some companies are doing. This is the main point of kickstarter. It's for people to support funding projects still in development and helping them get from that stage to get into production. In exchange for a "reward". It's not meant to be for products already having done multiple production runs ready to ramp up and customers are just pre-paying a long delivery time. I would agr…

Kickstarter for hardware products is very much its own insane, dysfunctional, extraordinarily risky world. Most money spent on Kickstarter goes to projects which are far far more likely to be completed in some form: videogames, books, board games. I'd say that hardware projects should be banned entirely except for companies that have already shipped similar products but, well, that would've included Pebble.

I don't mind the risk. I think it's great there's a way to support cool product ideas that still need time and money to figure out if it will work.

It's not for everyone, but I'd be happy to back a hardware project knowing there's a solid chance it might not succeed, especially on the more niche products. Someone has to.

But I do think risky product creators can compensate their backers better for the risks and for taking a chance on them. For example I think it would be great to see something like a behind the scenes component with more sharing of the process as they go. Maybe like a weekly vlog about them building this new product from scratch, with successes and failures and what they are learning. The company doesn't have to show anything proprietary. It's like behind the scene DVD but for a product not a movie. I'd watch it. Plus all the backers would know that the creators tried and if they are failing, the reasons why. It could be interesting and entertaining. And if doesn't work they would at least have shared what they learned which others can learn from too. Anywho I don't see this happening.

Re: Pebble's next step

#322

Post by detaro »

enraged_camel wrote: post #312
Tinyyy wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does FitBit have the responsibility of providing support for another company’s products? If they didn’t buy Pebble, it would’ve shuttered anyways and they might not even refund the preorders.

When you buy a company, you don't buy just the assets. You also acquire the liabilities, which include debt, warranties and support contracts.

Which is why they did not buy the company. The company is going bankrupt and sold IP to recover money to pay some of the debts with. If you did that to a healthy company that might be fraudulent, but when the company is going under either way it is probably not.

Re: Pebble's next step

#323

Post by dashoffset »

fma wrote: post #263
alonsonic wrote: post #47

I can't believe this, just got a Pebble 2 a week ago and now they are literally saying it may not work in the future. If we rely on their cloud services for activity tracking and app downloads then it will be useless if FitBit doesn't maintain the platform. I have to say I'm really disappointed and this is a huge blow to people that invest in startups offering hardware. If the company fails forget about the smart stu…

I like how they announce it after Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales. I'm sure they knew of it during the acquisition as it would be all laid out, but they wanted to squeeze in more sales. Hopefully the average consumer gets wind of this and return their product.

I'm really thinking about returning mine. I just don't know what I would get instead since the competition is either crap or crazy expensive.

Re: Pebble's next step

#324

Post by kbd »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #152
europa wrote: post #55

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".

This hurts, because Pebble always seemed to me like the "good" kind of startup that will live long.

Unfortunately they didn't grow responsibly.

I worked for a start-up that did a similar thing. We hired tons of people and the business was unsustainable. It was a push to get bought or go out of business. Lucky for us we got bought.

Re: Pebble's next step

#325

Post by kobeya »

this-dang-guy wrote: post #256
kobeya wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Want a crunchpad? Or whatever they renamed it to. I have no use for the thing.

Wow, I didn't know they ever shipped those things. No thanks, my stack is big enough, but I betcha someone collects those!

They didn't, as it isn't a "Crunchpad" _per se_. But Fusion Garage, the team actually developing the tablet in a branding deal had a falling out with Michael Arrington at the last minute and released the product under the rebrand of "JooJoo" :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JooJoo

They actually delivered on orders, although I don't know how many. I got an early review model for free. I've kept on to it because it is x86 with an NVIDIA ION board. I thought it'd be fun to put XBMC / Kodi on it, and maybe some retro game emulators. Never got around to it though and it's still running stock firmware and sitting in its original box.

A piece of history to be sure, although I doubt anyone who wasn't there at the time would remember it. The highly anticipated device that invented the tablet market was not the iPad...

Re: Pebble's next step

#326

Post by hjmcnew »

beerbajay wrote: post #71
hjmcnew wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be 100% clear, I totally agree with you that one shouldn't check their text messages while driving. That being said, the statistics don't support your claim that traffic fatalities have spiked. Through 2014 (the last year the IIHS published statistics) fatalities had either leveled off or continued their historical decline. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalit...

> In the first six months of 2016, highway deaths jumped 10.4 percent, to 17,775, from the comparable period of 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/business/tech-distractions...

Having read the article you posted the raw increase is concerning. Unfortunately the article does the statistics no favors. It uses anecdotal evidence and an increase in overall fatalities to draw a correlation that (likely is) but may not be there. Phone calls and SMS have been in cars for a couple decades. Smart phones have been prevalent about a decade. Apps have been a thing for more than 5 years. Why the sudden jump over the last 6 months? The article says apps are certainly to blame but then provides very little supporting evidence.

Re: Pebble's next step

#328

Post by peatmoss »

hjmcnew wrote: post #50
peatmoss wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> check a text message on my watch while drivin Please don't do this. Traffic fatalities--particularly those involving vulnerable road users have spiked in the last couple years. There is nothing you can communicate that is worth the grave risk to others that you pose.

To be 100% clear, I totally agree with you that one shouldn't check their text messages while driving. That being said, the statistics don't support your claim that traffic fatalities have spiked. Through 2014 (the last year the IIHS published statistics) fatalities had either leveled off or continued their historical decline. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalit...

> the statistics don't support your claim that traffic fatalities have spiked. Through 2014[...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/us/traffic-deaths-up-more-...

Re: Pebble's next step

#329

Post by scblock »

Considering that Pebble is stopping product development, cancelling orders, ending warranties, ending support, and essentially completely shutting down I find the positive tone of this post and the Kickstarter update post to be nearly unbelievable.

I know we see plenty of "our incredible journey" posts filled with optimism, but euphemistic language and dozens of photos of watches and happy people and more watches is jarring.

It's not a shame to try hard at something and fail. But it is a shame to fail and pretend you succeeded. We can see through you.

Re: Pebble's next step

#330

Post by DashRattlesnake »

vvanders wrote: post #170
lettergram wrote: post #109

You know, Pebble has garnered one of the best group of loyal customers I know of: well-off techies. Had they came to the community and said, "hey we are losing sales and we need everyone to pitch in $10 / year for software support (maybe a web interface for fitness or something) I guarantee a few hundred thousand people would have done it. Had they shared a coupon with the community (i.e. email add campaign, or add o…

Yeah, pardon my french but I'm fucking angry this morning. There's some initial reports that they need service back-end to be live in order to do the initial pairing. My Time Round is a dead watch walking if that's the case. There's not a comparable smartwatch right now that is like the Time Round, I'd happily have paid for ongoing support.

> There's some initial reports that they need service back-end to be live in order to do the initial pairing.

So much of the time "the cloud" is an anti-feature.

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