Pebble Makes a Comeback: New Smartwatch in the Works
One of the earliest pioneers of smartwatches is apparently making a surprising Eric Migicovsky, one of the founders of the original Pebble smartwatch, recently announced plans to revive the brand as well the news that PebbleOS was going Open Source.
Pebble, a real trailblazer in the smartwatch industry, gained popularity with its innovative features, including low-power e-paper displays and extended battery life, all at an affordable price. However, the company's success was short-lived, as it was acquired by Fitbit in 2016 and subsequently ceased producing its products.
Looking back, the failure of Pebble is an interesting story. Their base was firmly in the techy/hacker demographic, which is a decent place to start. The problem was they didn’t know where to go from there. Sure, people really loved the E-Ink screens and the battery life which could last a week, but the shift away from the productivity focus towards health tracking did them in. They strayed away from what they were and tried to be something they weren’t in the hopes of selling more units.
Now, with some help from Google (who now owns Fitbit and therefore also owns the Pebble stuff), Migicovsky and a team of former Pebble employees are working on a new Pebble smartwatch. While details are obviously scarce, Migicovsky talked about how no current smartwatch pulls off each of 5 features he wants to see.
Always-on e-paper screen
• Reflective for easy readability in sunlight.
• Glanceable information.
• Unobtrusive with no bright light to distract others.
Long battery life
• Reduces charging frequency.
• Minimizes travel accessories.
Simple and beautiful user experience
• Prioritizes essential features:
• Time
• Notifications
• Music control
• Alarms
• Weather
• Calendar
• Sleep/step tracking
Physical buttons
• Control music without looking at the screen.
Hackable platform
• Enables custom watchface creation.
• Offers greater personalization compared to restricted platforms like Apple Watch.
Frankly, this sounds like pretty much exactly what I want from a smartwatch.. As much as I love my Pixel Watch 2, if I’m honest, I never use 95% of what it can do. A focus on the things I actually do use, with great battery life and a screen that works in tandem with bright external light sounds like a dream.
I think this might be the coolest part of all. This revival is made possible by Google's decision to open-source the PebbleOS. This allows the team to leverage the existing software and build upon it for the new device. Migicovsky said that PebbleOS took 4 years and dozens of engineers to get up and running, so not having to start over is a huge head start. As much bad press as Google gets, sometimes deservingly, this is a really cool thing they did.
After years of hoping someone would come along and build the next-generation watch that could replace the Pebble, Migicovsky says it’s time to step back in and time for Pebble to do it themselves. To avoid repeating the mistakes of last time, he says they’ll emphasize keeping things small and not overextending themselves by delving into new categories too soon. The scale will likely be smaller, but more sustainable. He says the new watch will have “the same specs and features as Pebble, though with some fun new stuff as well” and it’ll of course run the newly open sourced PebbleOS. It’ll even be compatible with all the old apps and faces.
The first time around they managed to sell millions of devices, I can’t wait to see what they can do this time!