There’s some good news to share for Pebble fans: The no-frills smartwatch is making a comeback. The Verge spoke to Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky today, who says he was able to convince Google to open-source the smartwatch’s operating system. Migicovsky is in the early stages of prototyping a new watch and spinning up a company again under a to-be-announced new name.
Founded back in 2012, Pebble was initially funded on Kickstarter and created smartwatches with e-ink displays that nailed the basics. They could display notifications, let users control their music, and last 5-7 days on a charge thanks to their displays that are akin to what you find on a Kindle. The watches came in at affordable prices too, and they could work across both iOS and Android.
Pebble was an underdog in a game against giants like Apple and Google. It made timepieces that were more like watches with smart features built-in, rather than gadgets that feature a watch. They were watches for people who wanted something close to an actual watch.
And Pebble was early to the game too, but it fell into the trap of raising venture capital funding and got in over its skis trying to scale too fast, too quickly. It is a fate that has befallen many hardware startups. Venture capitalists seek to multiply their investment in a ten-year timeframe requiring startups to release new products at a rapid pace and try and gain market share as fast as possible.
Pebble released iterations including the Pebble Steel , which.
