Pebbler here. There is an old Italian anarchist poem[0] that sings: "date fiori ai ribelli caduti", "give flowers to the fallen rebels". Flowers for you, rebels. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0Rsf_7f0U
So say we all.
So say we all.
Pebble's next step
381–390 of 457 posts
Re: Pebble's next step
#382I'm quite angry. This sucks so bad. I "ordered" a Time 2 via Kickstarter. I'm glad they are refunding me, but that makes me think... WTF, did they not produce any Time 2's? Or are they all going to the landfill? How long have they been knowing that they are going to be insolvent? This doesn't happen overnight! Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? Why does everybody have to aim for total market dominance to be successfu…
I don't want to hit a person while they're down (in the dumps about their "purchase"), but going to Kickstarter for version 3 was my sign to give it a rest on buying Pebbles. Maybe it was just marketing, but it caused me to wonder "have you not made enough profit to support rolling out your third version without outside backing?" If it finally hit retail, great, I might get one then. But in the meantime I bought a Ga…
>How many Pebbles do you see in the wild? Now, how many Apple Watches do you see?
Almost the same number for me. That said I barely see any Apple watches and most people I know who bought them have left them in the bedside drawer long ago
Re: Pebble's next step
#383Earlier 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…
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Re: Pebble's next step
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know whether to applaud or criticize those who create open source software on unstable proprietary platforms, but if nothing else it shows what potential good greater openness would serve users.
Um...have you paid attention to the open source space for the past decade? Audium/Pidgin/libpurple all were originally created to have open source interfaces to close systems (MSN, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, etc). Most of the OSS work is about reverse engineering and creating open yet compatible tools to use with or in place of closed systems. If anything, projects like this can help keep Pebble watches alive after the de…
I don't think we're in disagreement. There is end-user value at least in short term. But when efforts are expended to keep users engaged with and thus financially supportive of closed systems instead of building alternatives isn't that folly?
None of the closed systems you mentioned exist in any meaningful form today and it's hard to imagine that a substantial number of Pidgin/Adium users began to sing the praises of XMPP rather than adopt another closed messaging system.
Re: Pebble's next step
#385I'm quite angry. This sucks so bad. I "ordered" a Time 2 via Kickstarter. I'm glad they are refunding me, but that makes me think... WTF, did they not produce any Time 2's? Or are they all going to the landfill? How long have they been knowing that they are going to be insolvent? This doesn't happen overnight! Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? Why does everybody have to aim for total market dominance to be successfu…
I don't want to hit a person while they're down (in the dumps about their "purchase"), but going to Kickstarter for version 3 was my sign to give it a rest on buying Pebbles. Maybe it was just marketing, but it caused me to wonder "have you not made enough profit to support rolling out your third version without outside backing?" If it finally hit retail, great, I might get one then. But in the meantime I bought a Ga…
I always said that sport watches will become smarter sooner then smart watches sportier.
Re: Pebble's next step
#386I'm quite angry. This sucks so bad. I "ordered" a Time 2 via Kickstarter. I'm glad they are refunding me, but that makes me think... WTF, did they not produce any Time 2's? Or are they all going to the landfill? How long have they been knowing that they are going to be insolvent? This doesn't happen overnight! Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? Why does everybody have to aim for total market dominance to be successfu…
This last kickstarter raised $12million while only requiring $1million to fund. I'm really unsure how they managed to get 12x the "required" funding but still fail to deliver.
Their internal target would have absolutely been "Less than 5mil+ is total failure".
Low goal is just good for PR and means you actually get some money rather than none if you fall short of your secret real goal
Re: Pebble's next step
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like the developers at Pebble are hopeful that Fitbit will allow the community to step in where Fitbit can't (or won't): https://developer.pebble.com/blog/2016/12/06/developer-commu... "Further down the road, we’ll be working to phase out cloud services, providing the ability for the community to take over, where possible."
I understanding them selling a lot of IP to Fitbit to pay back their debts and settle bankruptcy, but I really feel all the source for their app/store-services should have been made open source instead, prior to this announcement. That way at least their customers could try to hack together stuff or make mirrors of their app repos to keep their devices functional.
I think you're overestimating how much they value their former customers.
Re: Pebble's next step
#388I'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 bought a Vector Luna. It doesn't have all the features of Pebble, but it does what I need, the battery lasts a LOT longer, and it is by far the most attractive smart watch being made.
I really want to see an e-ink smartwatch, but monochrome LCD is enough to see notifications, etc.
Re: Pebble's next step
#389You 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…
Assuming all of the ~200,000 kickstarter backers would have been okay with the $10/year software, and no duplication of backers between their three campaigns, and that yearly payment kicking in as soon as each of the three campaigns ended (so before the customers even got their devices), that would have brought in a bit shy of $5m, compared to the ~$43m they brought in from their three campaigns. It's a good thought, but I doubt their revenue stream was only 10% away from being sustainable.
Re: Pebble's next step
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> This is sad because I was just about to get a Pebble (had tried beefier watches but felt battery life was too limited). Yeah this is sad. I had a Pebble 2 on my short list as a fitness tracker but went with something else. I liked that their devices didn't try to be too much. They were good at a few things and had a battery life I could live with.
What did you go with? I have Pebble 2 HR on my Christmas list. I had taken it off when these rumors started, but I couldn't find anything I liked more. I'm interested in Google Fit integration as I'm using that to track my runs.
I'm pretty happy with the Garmin Vivosmart HR, but it doesn't have the Fit integration.