TarpitCarnivore
Member
Did you read the article? They got 40 million when they owe more than that in debt.
What they got was a savings from complete and total bankruptcy
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Pebble officially shuts down, cancels all Pebble Time 2/Core/Time Round orders
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Did you read the article? They got 40 million when they owe more than that in debt.
What they got was a savings from complete and total bankruptcy
SJurgenson
Banned
Sure. And they did that, with the original Pebble. Then they became a real company that was producing hardware and getting on actual retail shelves.
The fact they then went BACK to Kickstarter for new models shows how exceedingly desperate or exceedingly shameless they were.
They had manufacturing partners, support structure, office space, hardware designers, etc. They should not be going back to Kickstarter unless (a) they are so bad at business (or their product so terrible) they cannot self-fund/get normal investment for new models, or (b) they are shameless scumbags going back to the teat of Kickstarter for free money.
This is ridiculous. Kickstarter is just crowdfunding, they have a product that might not get made and say they'll make it if they get enough funding from people who want it. It just happened that they had exactly 1 product so if that didn't get funded the company shut down.
eternalthree
Member
Darn it!
I'm on my second Pebble Classic, which is a great watch if it wasnt for the stupid prevalent display getting garbled problem, which is a design issue.
I was just about to submit another claim and send this one back in too. i love the battery life on my watch. hrm...
best things about this pebble watch so far are the ability to have the alarm go off in the morning and wake only me up, and not the toddler sleeping next to me, and the ability to set multiple timers/alarms for when i facilitate interviews and each candidate is on a different time frame. ugh.
I'm on my second Pebble Classic, which is a great watch if it wasnt for the stupid prevalent display getting garbled problem, which is a design issue.
I was just about to submit another claim and send this one back in too. i love the battery life on my watch. hrm...
best things about this pebble watch so far are the ability to have the alarm go off in the morning and wake only me up, and not the toddler sleeping next to me, and the ability to set multiple timers/alarms for when i facilitate interviews and each candidate is on a different time frame. ugh.
Marty Chinn
Member
This is ignorance. Look up Peak Design.
Spiritwalker
Member
That money won't even cover their debt apparently. They probably regret turning down those 700mil now.
Jugendstil
Member
Totally agree with this. As much as I loved my Pebble Time Steel, I thought it was pretty shady for them to keep using Kickstarter for funding. Now I'm glad I didn't Kickstart the new series and opted to move to the Apple Watch instead.
Not happy about this at all.
I love my Time Round and will wear it until it dies.
Pebble had the right approach to smartwatches, which was watch first and smart features second and an emphasis on battery life(because honestly, no one wants to charge their watch everyday).
I love my Time Round and will wear it until it dies.
Pebble had the right approach to smartwatches, which was watch first and smart features second and an emphasis on battery life(because honestly, no one wants to charge their watch everyday).
erotic grandpa
Member
Aw hell, I was thinking about getting a Pebble 2 soon. Would it, uh...still be worth it? Spend a little extra on the heart rate monitor version? Bad idea all-around?
Slurpy2k20
Member
That's your opinion, ok. These are the "useless, shitty" things I do on a daily basis with my Apple Watch:
- Make payments at 80% of stores I go to
- Control all my smart home devices (lights, locks, thermostat)
- Do a shitload of things without taking my phone out of my pocket, including:
- taking and making calls
- viewing/replying to messages messages
- viewing emails
- viewing notifications
- directions and navigation
- All aspects of fitness tracking, including motivation
- Unlocking my Mac
- Setting timers, reminders
- Controlling my Apple TV (Netflix, etc)
- Browsing news headlines
- Getting a 2nd viewfinder for camera so can take shots at high/low angles, etc
- Controlling my music
- Using Siri (much more reliable than phone)
- Calling an Uber
- Check my heartrate
- Leaving my phone on silent so as to not disturb others around me, yet still receive and filter notifications
And much more. All these things, I do one-handed and take a couple seconds top each, and have really reduced the time I spend pulling my phone out and staring at it each day. It's become natural and routine and add convenience to the day. I'm not bashing the Pebble, but to call it the "best" smartwatch while pretending that other products than a shit-ton more functionality don't exist is living in a bubble. And, IMO the Apple Watch is also good looking, and is lightweight. I had a Pebble, and dropped it because I simply could not justify the usefulness or lack of functionality, beyond the fact that it looked like some cheap plastic toy that came out of a cereal box (at least the non-round version).
GreenMonkey
Member
My wife got me a Pebble Time Round a couple of months ago, I'm a big fan. Less "oops I hit the touchscreen again" moments than my Android Wear watch. And lighter / less clunkier.
Too bad.
She went through an original Pebble, then Apple Watch, then Fitbit Charge, then Charge HR (both fitbits made her skin break out in nasty rashes), and then finally settled on the Pebble Time Round for herseld mid last year.
I like the focused nature of it (mostly notifications) and not the do-everything approach of the Apple Watch, or the do-most-things approach of the Android Wear devices.
Too bad.
She went through an original Pebble, then Apple Watch, then Fitbit Charge, then Charge HR (both fitbits made her skin break out in nasty rashes), and then finally settled on the Pebble Time Round for herseld mid last year.
I like the focused nature of it (mostly notifications) and not the do-everything approach of the Apple Watch, or the do-most-things approach of the Android Wear devices.
Anyone who remembers the hype around smartwatches and the expectations for market growth in 2014-2015 would understand why Pebble rejected a $700mil offer. If things had played out with wearables exploding in popularity, Pebble would have been a billion dollar company. But it hasn't and it's been quarter after quarter of decline for everyone including Apple.
It's not e-ink. It's e-LCD. Keeps a charge for several days vs 30+ days for e-ink. It depended on use, but tbh even recharging 5-7 days for a damn watch got to be annoying. Ditto for wireless headphones. One device to charge, a smartphone, is enough of a burden.
It's not e-ink. It's e-LCD. Keeps a charge for several days vs 30+ days for e-ink. It depended on use, but tbh even recharging 5-7 days for a damn watch got to be annoying. Ditto for wireless headphones. One device to charge, a smartphone, is enough of a burden.
metsallica
Member
Adore my Pebbles and had a Time 2 on order. Oh well. Hope Fitbit carries on the brand in some way, as I'd buy a smartwatch from them running Pebble's OS. Really don't want to go Apple Watch; love my various Pebbles...
serenewarfare
Banned
That version of the watch is like $300.
minor effort
Banned
I own a first-gen Pebble. I really liked it a lot for the first year or so before the thing at appealed to me most initially, getting notifications on my wrist, started to become tiresome. And I was playing around with a whole lot of new apps on it, stuff like navigation and even Twitter, but after awhile it felt more like I was looking for ways to force utility out of it when such things would be faster and less-complicated to do on my phone.
My Pebble has been sitting in a drawer for most of the past year. It was a relatively inexpensive way to sate my curiosity about smartwatches. It was good for what it did, but I don't foresee buying an Apple Watch or another smartwatch in the future. I have a feeling if I did the same pitfalls - trying to find ways to use it rather than uses I actually need - would arise.
EDIT: Also, I realized that taking my phone out of my pocket wasn't actually as difficult as smartwatch advertisements make it seem.
My Pebble has been sitting in a drawer for most of the past year. It was a relatively inexpensive way to sate my curiosity about smartwatches. It was good for what it did, but I don't foresee buying an Apple Watch or another smartwatch in the future. I have a feeling if I did the same pitfalls - trying to find ways to use it rather than uses I actually need - would arise.
EDIT: Also, I realized that taking my phone out of my pocket wasn't actually as difficult as smartwatch advertisements make it seem.
I'm not doubting those reasons can be valid but I can see others as well like free publicity of being biggest tech kickstarter yet again. Or ease of logistics processing orders without investing in any infrastructure for small fee.
No, that definitely looks like the $1200 ceramic model.
SJurgenson
Banned
If you operate a company that can manufacture physical computing devices, offer a support structure for users, AND get that product on actual national retail shelves -- there is no excuse for not being able to even get a simple bank loan to cover the up-front production costs of a new model.
Pebbles are (were?) sold in the US at Target and Best Buy. They are on Amazon.
If you have product on mass-market retail shelves, and literally cannot get any sort of traditional funding (venture capital, loans) to launch a new model, then you have real problems as a going concern.
Which, I note, is born out by this news -- they obviously were a terribly run company, or had a terrible product, or both.
There is NO excuse for going to Kickstarter when you are an operating company with retail partnerships.
As a company, you might as well be yelling in Times Square "We're totally terrible at what we do, and are likely to go broke!"
No wonder they got a massively lower offer from Fitbit. They announced publicly how terrible they were when they went for more Kickstarter money.
SJurgenson
Banned
They already had the logistics in place. They are in Target and Best Buy, and on Amazon.
Lionel Mandrake
Member
I've really gotten a lot of use out of my Pebble Time Steel, so I'm pretty bummed to hear this.
PeakPointMatrix
Member
Yeah I'm sure the poster meant to recommend the $1200 model and not the easily available for less than $300 mass-market model.
serenewarfare
Banned
Ah, saw it wrong. My mistake.
This ^^^^ They were the only smartwatch that had a great battery life without breaking your wallet. Fuck having to charge your smartwatch every day or 2 like a phone. I hope Fitbit at least takes the battery tech and improves Fitbit's battery to 7-10+ days....
giant_frying_pan
Member
Well, at least with the Brexit exchange rate sabotage, I'll end up getting more than my money back.
It's a shame because I looked forward to doing interesting things with the Core.
It's a shame because I looked forward to doing interesting things with the Core.
Marty Chinn
Member
Anyone thinking about getting a second one before the stock dries up?
This is still ridiculous. They did have venture capital money for a time, the problem is once Apple Watch failed to impress and the market tanked and that was gone. Other companies like Motorola have no plans for new devices, they took their lumps and moved on to other things because they do other things, but for Pebble that was their thing.
But on the consumer side people loved the product and it was a good value and that's reflected in this thread. So who are you enlightening here? Happy customers?
TarpitCarnivore
Member
But that is part of the problem. The fact the had to keep going back to kickstarter meant that free publicity only lasted for a short time and they never got inroads on marketshare. That should be a big red flag to a companies health and growth.
And these are all your opinions, beyond notifications and music controls an Apple Watch is pretty useless for me. I never use it outside of work hours and never feel like I'm really missing it when I'm not wearing it.
Marty Chinn
Member
Don't bother engaging with him. He's a well known diehard Apple is amazing and can do no wrong fan.
SJurgenson
Banned
If the consumers liked the product, Pebble would have had enough money in the bank to (a) self fund the costs of launching the new models, (b) use as collateral for a traditional loan, or (c) use as a bargaining chip to get more VC money.
Since it could do none of those, there is objective proof that consumers did not like the product enough for Pebble to survive.
If it is a case of they could, but decided not to -- then they are just greedy scumbags who went to Kickstarter for free, no-interest capital to cover their new product bring-up costs.
I think it's good for the health of hardware companies/startups that they failed. They became the Double Fine of hardware -- and thankfully they are now a hard case study that other established companies can look towards before they try their hand at the free money Kickstarter for new products.
That was a carefully worded rebuttle from Tim Cook over this report: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...arket-Declines-51.6-Quarter-Platforms-Vendors. Basically, it looks like he might be cherry picking data points to stem panic and even then it'll be on the back of price drops, not new product excitement. The real test is if we get unbundled sale numbers.
NOLA_Gaffer
Banned
Now I am by no means a Apple Watch connoisseur, but that looks a hell of a lot like the Ceramic "Apple Watch Edition" model that runs for $1249 on Apple's website.
minor effort
Banned
It feels like popular attention over the Apple Watch dropped off a cliff a couple months after it hit retail. Apple Watch 2 launched and seemed to get substantially less attention than new iPhones, new Macs, and even new iPads did.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/05/wearable-market-share-q3/
Tim Cook thinks Apple Watch will have strong sales this quarter with no figures to back that up. The only tangible positive here is Apple Watch sales were strong at the start of the holiday season. From one of your own links:
This is spin on a bit of good news and the rest is conjecture. What else would he say? "Our flagship wearable device will underperform again and you should just move on, the market is dying." The Apple Watch and smartwatch market in general are still in major quarter to quarter decline.
TarpitCarnivore
Member
Don't blame this on Apple. The entire market segment was FLOODED with cheap commodity items, especially once Garmin & Fitbit started shifting their products to be more smart. Samsung was also to the market quicker than Apple and it didn't go over well.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Pebble was not as good of a company as their user base thought.
Noted
Let me know when that apple watch lasts for 10 days without charging. Or when it costs $100.
You seem to ignore a lot of the reasons why Pebble's were popular.
lol
Pebble was scrappy and grassroots, Apple spent many times more on Apple Watch marketing than Pebble transacted in the entirety of it's run. It's not so much that Apple killed the market but that they became the face of it and couldn't adequately figure out why people should want them. Virtually everyone including Pebble had to backtrack on apps and promote health features because that was part of the mistake, but once it became about tech giants Pebble wasn't going to influence the direction of it anymore. Had any of them actually created something interesting with that mindshare it's likely all boats would have floated.
Mushroomer25
Member
A damn shame. I have a Pebble 2. It's great for a few very basic tasks, and manages to feel low-profile. Ideally, this is what smartwatches should be - unobtrusive, subtle, and function-focused. But it's a niche product, that's understandable.
It sucks that the warranty is dead, but I imagine I'll get my money's worth out of it.
It sucks that the warranty is dead, but I imagine I'll get my money's worth out of it.
Same, what an amazingly good watch. With the newest firmware update I am still getting around 10-11 days off of a full charge.
I just bought a backup stainless steel band for my Pebble Time Steel.
I will run my current one into the ground until other Smart Watches can catch up to the battery life of my current Pebble.
Marty Chinn
Member
I'm debating between getting a Pebble Time Round or a Pebble Time Steel that I'll swap between when I charge my Pebble Time.
billy beane
Banned
Would it still be worth buying one? I've had my eye on a Pebble Time Round for a while, it's the only smartwatch that doesn't make you look like a nerd cosplaying as a Star Trek character.
The Time 2/core etc looked so good! I actually got a fitbit because I won one and was planning on finally paying money for one. Ended up going Charge 2 after much deliberation because I could get one for 60 bucks. That said, I definitely was thinking about throwing down on a Time 2/core. I hope they influence future Fitbits.
Holy Mother of God.
Who offered them 700 million?? I retract my previous statement.
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