
What Hardware startups can learn from Pebble - kNawade
https://blog.bolt.io/what-hardware-startups-can-learn-from-pebble-3742e2819a45#.upowlcfyh
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gcatalfamo
Everybody is claiming that the focus on fitness is what drives smartwatches
purchases, and pebble was just too late to it.

Is it just me that stopped looking into smartwatches because they became too
fitness oriented?

I loved the focus on productivity and having a watch becoming slower because
it had to track an increasing number of health metrics I couldn't care less of
actually killed it for me.

~~~
rhaps0dy
What productivity thing would you use a smartwatch for?

I got a Pebble as a hackathon prize and tried to use it for a while, but I
wasn't able to find a use for it that I didn't already do with my smartphone,
which you must take with you anyways if you have a Pebble. So I'm really
curious.

~~~
stevewillows
The benefit of the Pebble was that you could get basic information
(notifications, notes, time, alarms, etc) without having to reach for your
phone. I found it perfect for meetings where I didn't want the client to feel
like I was tight on time or rushing things, even if I had to.

It seems silly, but the multiple timers were especially useful for cooking
large dinners.

Overall, the Pebble was great because it had fantastic battery life and
provided information silently without you having to interrupt a conversation
by reaching for a larger device.

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rhaps0dy
>I found it perfect for meetings where I didn't want the client to feel like I
was tight on time or rushing things, even if I had to.

Ah, this seems good. Socially acceptable information-checking. I'll keep this
in mind as a use for smartwatches, even though I don't need it (yet?).

>It seems silly, but the multiple timers were especially useful for cooking
large dinners.

You could also set the phone on a surface somewhere and have multiple timers
on it, but I see how carrying them on your wrist makes them more convenient.

Thanks for writing this :)

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stevewillows
The vibration is the key for me.

I first got the Pebble because I wanted to know who was calling or texting me
while I was on my bike around town. Over the next few years the other features
became part of my daily habits. Simple things like responding to texts with
canned messages (e.g. 'Ten minutes away' or 'I'll call you in five') allowed
me to take a relaxing ride without stressing about missing an important call
or message.

My experience is similar to the days before I got a smartphone -- that
'pfft... I don't need that. I can do that when I get back to my desk.'

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krrrh
A subtle point here for me was that I found the vibration of the Pebble v.1 to
still be rather loud and to draw the attention of anyone near me to my wrist.
It's rarely mentioned, but I think the biggest feature upgrade when I moved on
to the Apple Watch was how subtle the "tap" vibration was. It means that I am
unfailingly aware of a notification, timer, or alarm firing, and a person I am
in conversation with is never aware that it happened. The ability for it to
deliver different patterns of taps is also nice, for instance, turn left or
turn right are recognizably different tap patterns when using the watch for
navigation.

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kensai
I think Pebble's CEO simply screwed the moment of selling. He should have sold
to Citizen for almost 10x the value a year before. He did not. He burned his
cash in the process of making another product.

It was a textbook CEO mistake.

~~~
econnors
Hindsight is 20/20

~~~
kensai
He thought he could create more value from his product which he did not. You
either can or cannot. A counter-example is that of Mark Zuckerberg. He stuck
to his product.

A good CEO has to know the limits of his product/service and stick or sell at
the right moment.

~~~
econnors
I think being a good CEO involves many traits. Obviously he had the wrong
impression of where Pebble stood in the marketplace and where the company was
headed (ie. he didn't foresee the fitness trend, or thought they could
successfully pivot). But I assume he had good reasons for doing what he did.
Having multiple $10M+ kickstarter launches is evidence that he understood
product needs better than most of us could ever hope to.

I'm sure he regrets the decision to not sell more than ever now, and realizes
he was wrong, but to say he was a bad CEO because he didn't sell at the right
time is akin to being a "Monday Morning Quarterback Expert" where it's easy to
criticize somebody for not acting correctly in the past because the right
decision is so obvious now.

That's what I meant by the 20/20 statement.

~~~
kensai
I understood what you meant, that's why I disagreed. :)

> but to say he was a bad CEO because he didn't sell at the right time is akin
> to...

My point is exactly this. This, in hardware startups at least, is probably the
most important trait of all, at the end of the day. Everything is a wave. You
need to take the photos and jump while you are on the top of it, otherwise you
are swallowed by it further down the "road".

Knowing when the wave is at its max (before breaking) is as important in
surfing as in business, apparently.

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r00fus
There's focus and there are killer apps.

For the Apple Watch, I use it for 3 main things: 1) fitness - it's a great
motivator in addition to Strava (I don't record all my activity like walks in
Strava). 2) Wunderground complication + timetravel is fantastic 3) Duologin
for 2nd factor is much easier than the iPhone.

Pebble failed because Apple made the watch into a iPhone accessory and Apple
Watch was better integrated than the Pebble.

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WWLink
Yeah, and once Apple decided to sell their own watch, the hope that anyone
else would be able to successfully integrate their smartwatch with the iPhone
went out the window, unfortunately.

I hate these stupid ecosystems. There are times I want to use Prime Video on
an Apple TV and then stream from a PC or something odd like that. Maybe I want
to use an Apple watch with an Android phone..

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sfifs
I really wonder if fitness is a big market. The size of Soda and fast food
giants vs. "fitness food" indicates it's a niche industry.

Seems to me that the real issueay be the technology is not good enough/fast
enough to provide a seamless substitute to watch/phone functions and the
fitness people are really the early adopters who are willing to trade off
quirky tech for their niche needs being met

~~~
mahyarm
A fitness/diet food that is as cheap as fast food would be amazing! Often my
issue is getting sick of a small selection.

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utopcell
People might not remember that pebble didn't try to pivot from a smart watch
to a fitness tracker but rather the opposite. They pivoted to a smart watch
from a sort-of fitness tracking device (bicycling tracker.)

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pjmlp
Peeble certainly wasn't the first smartwatch company.

I have a few Casio and Timex that prove otherwise.

They were just a victim that smart watches aren't really that sustainable long
term product.

There is a reason why Japan companies stop selling them in the 90's.

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SpikeDad
What can regular people learn from Pebble? Don't put your money into crowd
sourced products from companies that don't listen to the contributors.

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6stringmerc
Uh, comparing Apple to Rolex is ridiculous. One is a mass produced piece of
plastic retailing for a few hundred dollars, and the other is a status symbol
of craftsmanship that, price point wise, is more equivalent to a used car.
Smartwatches inherently occupy a niche like Google Glass. Real watches,
timepieces, chronographs, are already so well established and up market that,
uh, I don't think the conversation is really even comparable.

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edblarney
I fear that the repercussions will be that 'hardware' means longer and more
costlier life-cycles, and that the path to 'high flying' is just
quicker/easier in software, and that it will make it more difficult to raise
money for these kinds of things.

