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Pebble's next step

blog.getpebble.com

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Re: Pebble's next step

#351

Post by Tinyyy »

st3v3r wrote: post #307
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.

Because they bought the assets? Why should they be able to only get the good stuff, and not the responsibility?

Because that’s how the real world works? If you tagged on the responsibility, they would’ve just paid less for it. It’s Pebble and their investors that only sold the good stuff to maximise their returns.

Re: Pebble's next step

#352

Post by takeda »

olemartinorg wrote: post #39
tedajax wrote: post #5

As someone who quite likes their time steel and who was patiently waiting for their time 2 this is incredibly frustrating. No other watches do what I want so I guess my foray into smart watches is over. It's a shame too because I appreciate the convenience it offers but I probably won't miss it much after a couple of weeks

I agree with this being frustrating. I had to explain to so many people that even though my watch doesn't have a SIM card, integrated 4G, GPS or a memory card slot for music it is still exactly what I wanted. Pebble watches do what smart watches should do, without trying to be a tiny phone on your wrist. I guess I can only dream, but I hope they some day open up parts of it so that the phone app can continue working…

> But with that said, a smart watch makes me feel hyper-connected. Putting it in quiet mode (and/or taking it off my wrist) every now and then is liberating and definitely makes me more productive.

I feel that you probably did not configure notifications. Each time I received a notification that is not important I went to Pebble, and disabled it, after a while pebble was no longer as annoying.

Re: Pebble's next step

#353

Post by Tinyyy »

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.

Clearly that did not happen, because they stopped support for warranties. So only a moral, not factual, argument could work here.

Re: Pebble's next step

#354

Post by lgleason »

The wearables market is trying to find it's sustainable model at the moment and we are at the low point of the hype cycle. Part of the issue has to do with the business model with hardware devices like this. IE: A one time hardware purchase that needs to fund all further software updates etc. and the reliance on continually selling new hardware to stay in business.

Then there was the issue of needing to learn another dev stack to write applications with it vs the Apple or Google offerings that leverage Android and IOS development skills. Right now the largest market in the space is with simple devices such as fitness trackers. The disappointing thing is that Fitbit isn't as open with their bluetooth stack/Gatt profiles, but that's another discussion.

Re: Pebble's next step

#355

Post by rahoulb »

I'm genuinely saddened by this.

My Time Round is the only smart watch I've found that looks like a real watch (THIN) - they seemed to be the only ones that understood all the functionality in the world means nothing if you've got an ugly brick strapped to your wrist.

(And as for a screen that only switches on when you raise your wrist - it's like those people have no idea what a watch is for)

Re: Pebble's next step

#356

Post by stinkytaco »

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'm really looking forward to something like a Trivoli [1] or Chronos [2]. It gives me most of the things I use the watch for (alarm and silent notifications) and allows me to use a nicer watch (or different watches, even). I don't get screen that allows me to deal with notifications, but over time I've found that to be 1) kind of rude if I'm talking to someone. 2) For the most part if there's something I need to deal with, it's easier to take the phone out. Mostly I just want to be notified if certain, important notifications come in (SMS, Google Hangouts, possibly one of my email addresses). Your use case may vary, of course.

Obviously we all need something different, but that's what I'm waiting for.

[1]: http://www.trivoly.com/en [2]: https://wearchronos.com/

Re: Pebble's next step

#357

Post by takeda »

I'm starting to think that perhaps kickstart (or another kickstart like service should be created) should only back projects that are open source (source code of software, designs of hardware etc.).

Right now, when people are backing projects it essentially comes down to store like behavior, where you essentially purchasing a product and are not even guaranteed to receive it. If kickstarted products would instead be open, community would own them, and many of them could continue to thrive.

Pebble seems like is a product that would be much more successful if it was open sourced.

Re: Pebble's next step

#358

Post by fencepost »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #127
experimentsin wrote: post #95

I note this from Pebble's developer blog, suggesting that a Fitbit-targeting successor to Pebble's app SDK may be a big part of the plan: "Although this chapter in Pebble’s developer story is closing, our team and ethos have found a new, welcoming home at Fitbit. We can’t wait to have you alongside us for this next adventure. Third-party Pebble developers have a massive opportunity to drive how a Fitbit developer eco…

This sound like typical post-acquihire PR bullshit. New 'exciting opportunities' and 'building the foundation for the next great wearable experience' does not in any way imply that any useful thing resembling a smartwatch will be created. It doesn't imply there will be a developer-friendly platform. Nor does this message actually make sense. "We want you—our fantastic developer community—to keep playing a crucial rol…

> This sound like typical post-acquihire PR bullshit.

Maybe, but of the major players in the smartwatch or not-quite-dumb fitness tracker markets Fitbit is notable in not supporting any kind of app/face ecosystem. Obviously there's a ton of stuff for the true "smartwatches" from Apple and the assorted Android Wear stuff, there's Garmin with ConnectIQ, the now-defunct Microsoft Band had an SDK for developing Tiles, and then there were Fitbit, Jawbone, whoever made those Bluetooth-connected bands that Aldi had one week, etc. with fitness trackers that have some predefined screens.

Purchasing the IP and hiring a bunch of the software developers from Pebble lets Fitbit probably cut 2 years off of the development timeframe for them to have devices with changeable apps and an ecosystem that lets them have third-party developers. They could undoubtedly get something out faster, but it'd be an immature product and would probably take them another year before it could really be considered good.

I fully expect to see a lot of the Pebble code to make it into Fitbit devices - probably not for a year or more unless they can do some things with the existing hardware, but a lot faster like this than by trying to staff up from elsewhere and develop it all in-house.

Re: Pebble's next step

#359

Post by xs »

I don't consider Pebble to be a startup anymore. I'm not sure why so many comments here use that term. They have found a repeatable, stable, and scalable business model that works and have been successful with it for years. Their watches are sold in Best Buy, Target, Walmart and other retail stores. Once you hit that level of main stream popularity I would say you're no longer a startup.

It was shocking to me to see Kickstarters for Pebble after their initial watch came out. After they had already been for sales in major retail stores. They should have solidified their business model by then and been profitable already. I feel like Kickstarter should be there to get your initial idea launched and if you can't take flight from there, don't do another.

Anyway, huge Pebble fan here, super sad to see them mismanage their assets that resulted in this.

Re: Pebble's next step

#360

Post by Nition »

yabatopia wrote: post #225
paulftw wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They genuinely believed they were going to change the world, drank too much of their own kool-aid and eventually ran out of money. Pretty sure they feel terrible right now and I don't think they slept well for the past 6 months. Could someone reasonable see this coming before KS? Most likely yes. Would they get this far without taking big risks? Most likely no. You feel angry you didn't get your pebbles, I feel angry…

You can take the "going to change the world" too far. They are bankrupt and still believe they're "Making Awesome Happen". Investors lost their money. Suppliers will not get paid. Employees are losing their jobs just before Christmas. Customers will not get their orders. Current customers are left without support and - in the near future - a limited functioning device. How is that "Making Awesome Happen"? A more humb…

I have to totally agree. Kickstarters fail, but this[1] is a gold standard of how not to write your "sorry, we failed" post. Ditch the marketing speak and the PR photos and just be honest with your customers.

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-2-time...

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