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Pebble's next step

blog.getpebble.com

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Re: Pebble's next step

#331

Post by darklajid »

tw04 wrote: post #262
TeMPOraL wrote: post #202

I'm sad/angry/depressed as any Pebbler right now, so I won't repeat those comments. Instead, since this is HN after all, let me ask - what shall we do? In a year or two, when my current Pebble Time fails, I'd love an equivalent smartwatch to be available. Since the market doesn't seem to want it, how can we make it happen anyway? Features I'm looking for are, in order of priority: - always-on screen, preferably color…

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a fanboy - but it's because I've had other smart watches and it's just so much better . Why not consider garmin? Not sure if their SDK is going to hit the mark as I'm guessing you want complete control and it's definitely not that, but they have everything else you've asked for. https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

Well, they're three times the price. That's a bit hard to swallow, honestly.

A Pebble is a nice gadget. The Garmin (looking at garmin.com, clicking the first thing that looks like a watch) is close to a month of rent.

I believe you when you state that you're satisfied. On the other hand, I really don't feel that this is in the Pebble replacement league.

Re: Pebble's next step

#332

Post by takeda »

JonFish85 wrote: post #172
paulftw wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably thought a big KS would convince investors to give them couple hundred million. What they should have done is cut costs and develop 10x fewer features, let the community grow slowly but organically and wait out the bad times.

"What they should have done is cut costs and develop 10x fewer features, let the community grow slowly but organically and wait out the bad times." It's easy to say that, but when you are up against the Apple/Samsung type companies who have much deeper pockets, don't have to wait out bad times, have the ability to lean on vendors, have contracts in place with manufacturing and the supply chain to efficiently deliver…

> It's easy to say that, but when you are up against the Apple/Samsung type companies who have much deeper pockets

They did not really have to go against Apple/Samsung, their product was unique enough that Apple and Samsung don't have anything that's similar to it, and people like me would prefer pebble over their products. I mean now that pebble is gone, I'll most likely go back to regular watches.

Re: Pebble's next step

#333

Post by wlesieutre »

mattmaroon wrote: post #129
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…

I don't think they even have a few hundred thousand customers. Their first one kicked in the neighborhood of 50k supporters. Did they even ship the second? A hardware company on the hook for fulfilling 50k orders of the sequel has some pretty serious expenses. A sale might have been the best landing and what got everyone a refund for the 2nd.

Pebble Time 2 would have been their third major product. They had the original Pebble, and then the Pebble Time. IIRC the Pebble Steel and Pebble Time Round were sort of secondary projects, but if you include them then they had 4 generations of delivered products.

Re: Pebble's next step

#334

Post by ohsnapman »

deegles wrote: post #327

Did Pebble employees have stock options? Is there any money left for them?

> The deal will mean the Pebble stock held by employees is worthless, two of the people said. The money will instead go to debt holders, vendors, some of its main equity investors, and Kickstarter refunds for the Time 2 and Pebble Core orders, the people said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-07/pebble-sa...

Re: Pebble's next step

#335

Post by problems »

tw04 wrote: post #262
TeMPOraL wrote: post #202

I'm sad/angry/depressed as any Pebbler right now, so I won't repeat those comments. Instead, since this is HN after all, let me ask - what shall we do? In a year or two, when my current Pebble Time fails, I'd love an equivalent smartwatch to be available. Since the market doesn't seem to want it, how can we make it happen anyway? Features I'm looking for are, in order of priority: - always-on screen, preferably color…

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a fanboy - but it's because I've had other smart watches and it's just so much better . Why not consider garmin? Not sure if their SDK is going to hit the mark as I'm guessing you want complete control and it's definitely not that, but they have everything else you've asked for. https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

Thar Garmin watches are so much more expensive and do an excessive amount of stuff. In Canada, for $150 I could have a pebble time with a color screen, great battery life, sleep tracking, step tracking and that can do notifications. That's all I use it for, I might like a heart rate monitor on occasion, but paying way more for extra stuff I'll never or rarely use doesn't appeal to me at all. The only Garmin smartwatch I can find in stores is over $800. This isn't a real alternative.

Re: Pebble's next step

#336

Post by problems »

fest wrote: post #268
TeMPOraL wrote: post #202

I'm sad/angry/depressed as any Pebbler right now, so I won't repeat those comments. Instead, since this is HN after all, let me ask - what shall we do? In a year or two, when my current Pebble Time fails, I'd love an equivalent smartwatch to be available. Since the market doesn't seem to want it, how can we make it happen anyway? Features I'm looking for are, in order of priority: - always-on screen, preferably color…

There are Chinese companies working on similar products, for example WeLoop[0], Goclever[1]. People are already working on open-source firmware for some of these watches[2], so I think there's a reasonably good chance that either some of these companies will create a decent alternative to pebble, or at least good enough hardware which can be used with community-developed firmware (and even more importantly: apps on t…

Are the Goclever products actually released? They look quite interesting to me.

Re: Pebble's next step

#337

Post by problems »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #210
syshum wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I have to say I'm really disappointed and this is a huge blow to people that invest in startups offering hardware. Buyers need to start demanding Open Source Software and Open Hardware... With out that, you will always be screwed

Or at least treat any kind of cloud integration as a big negative. Without cloud dependence, the devices can always be hacked and made to work again until hardware dies.

One of the main reasons I went with the Pebble over other options was that I could use sleep tracking with it via a 3rd party app, without any need for their cloud. Sleep as Android has your back there. It's the only sleep tracking tool I like because it's able to keep your data locally on your phone or sync'd via a few mechanisms.

As for the step tracking... yeah, not sure.

Re: Pebble's next step

#338

Post by htrp »

mbesto wrote: post #173
victorvation wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? _All_ Kickstarters are gambles. Their messaging[1] is pretty clear in the fact that you aren't buying a product, you're contributing money with the hope that the maker will deliver on their promises. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store

Even though Kickstarter explicitly says it's not a store, it doesn't mean people don't think it is. Perception = reality. This news will most likely have the largest effect on Kickstarter, specifically in the tech category, more than anything else. There have been many failures of promises on Kickstarter, but when your top 4 most funded projects are all now dead, people are going to start thinking twice about backing…

To be fair though the 1, 3, and 4 are all pebble. 2 is that coolest cooler project

Re: Pebble's next step

#339

Post by dlevine »

darklajid wrote: post #331
tw04 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a fanboy - but it's because I've had other smart watches and it's just so much better . Why not consider garmin? Not sure if their SDK is going to hit the mark as I'm guessing you want complete control and it's definitely not that, but they have everything else you've asked for. https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

Well, they're three times the price. That's a bit hard to swallow, honestly. A Pebble is a nice gadget. The Garmin (looking at garmin.com, clicking the first thing that looks like a watch) is close to a month of rent. I believe you when you state that you're satisfied. On the other hand, I really don't feel that this is in the Pebble replacement league.

The Garmin Vivoactive HR (which supports their app platform, has GPS and optical HR) was on sale for $170 on Black Friday. It periodically will go on sale for this price.

Re: Pebble's next step

#340

Post by bradyo »

this-dang-guy wrote: post #255
yunolisten wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Buyers need to start demanding Open Source Software and Open Hardware... Exactly

Point me to an F/OSS and Open Hardware version and I'm there. Seriously, I'm always backing those sorts of devices over proprietary ones every chance I get - though it's rare as heck.

Pretty sure this is still under active development, but it's supposed to be a completely open fitness tracker: http://openhealth.wemaketotem.org/

There's also the FOSS smart watch OS Asteroid OS: http://asteroidos.org/

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