
Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff - Rifu
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/23/smartwatch-firm-pebble-lays-off-25-of-its-staff/
======
david-given
I just bought a PTS, to replace an LG G Android Wear watch which I can no
longer stand.

It's slightly terrifying how much better the PTS is that the G, in every
possible aspect, despite technically being worse. It's got less RAM, it's got
a slower processor, it's got a smaller screen, it doesn't have a
touchscreen... but somehow it ends up being a vastly nicer and more useful
thing than the G.

I think that partly it's to do with different expectations. The PTS feels like
a watch with lots of cool features. The Wear feels like a lobotomised
smartphone which would frustrate me every time I use it.

But there's a lot of really careful design in the Pebble which is missing from
the G. The UI is amazingly fast --- you never have to wait for it, ever
(unlike the G). It's well designed and I can find things, unlike the G with
it's weird U-shaped settings menu. I control it by pressing buttons, which is
fast and reliable and, critically, means that the screen's not covered by my
fingers; the G was controlled by sloppy touchscreen swipes that it wasn't very
good at recognising.

Also, the PTS has a 10-day battery life and a screen that I can see in direct
sunlight.

(The PTS screen is a thing of beauty. It's a reflective Sharp Memory LCD, and
you can see it in direct sunlight. Like, it looks _really good_ in direct
sunlight. The colours have this metallic tint to them which the UI design
shows off nicely. It's small, but so, so much nicer than the G's screen.)

~~~
teekert
I agree, my pts feels like a nice watch, a good watch with well visible screen
in any conditions. What you get extra is: Notification, alarms, bike computer,
ski-tracker, music controller (includes Sonos), step counter, sleep tracker.
Mine consistently gets a 12 day battery life. It can even be stretched to 14
probably because at the end it goes into watch only mode. I love it much more
than I could have imagined in advance. Just expect a nice watch, not a small
smartphone. I even got it becuase I wanted a watch, my alternative was a Casio
with some features.

I use my phone in a very different way now, I hardly turn on the screen
anymore. I see if something is important right away (usually it is not) and I
can leave it until I'm on the train for example.

------
adrianN
I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens
for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a
smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart
watches I'm at a complete loss.

Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the
watch?

~~~
feld
My wife and I would be very sad if Pebble went away. Even "crippled" with iOS
it is a huge improvement.

* my phone is permanently on silent. Only my watch vibrates. I've found this to be much more professional.

* good step tracker

* I have an app that wakes me up between REM cycles. It's glorious!

* I always know the time, you know, like watch people do

* battery life and water proof -- I never take it off... One reason I am not interested in Apple Watch

* inability to interact/reply from watch is a PLUS. Watches make terrible input devices and there's less of a distraction

* I don't get distracted by my phone. If I have to grab my phone to check a notification I'm going to start opening apps out of habit and get lost in my phone.

~~~
w8rbt
If you learn Morse Code, the watches can be decent input devices. Here's a
short video of a guy typing a SMS message on a smart watch using Morse Code .
[http://www.cultofmac.com/409175/nifty-app-uses-morse-code-
to...](http://www.cultofmac.com/409175/nifty-app-uses-morse-code-to-send-
apple-watch-messages/)

~~~
CDotDot
That seems terribly inefficient to add a delay to the letter matching.

I could see it being incredibly useful given a third "done with letter"
button.

~~~
w8rbt
Morse Code has always been timed and spaced. There have to be consistent
pauses between dits, dahs, chars and words or it all runs together and makes
no sense.

didahdah is the letter W and didah dah are the letters AT. Having the wrong
timing or no pauses between dits and dahs totally changes the code.

And, it's never been very efficient for sending large messages. 40 WPM is the
fastest humans can copy. Most normal people top out at about 20 WPM. To put
that in perspective, we speak at about 300 WPM. Basically, that's why Morse
Code has so many abbreviations called Q codes.

    
    
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_code
    

"The duration of a dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or dash
is followed by a short silence, equal to the dot duration. The letters of a
word are separated by a space equal to three dots (one dash), and the words
are separated by a space equal to seven dots. The dot duration is the basic
unit of time measurement in code transmission."

[http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I/](http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I/)

It is extremely efficient and effective when you only have a few watts, a
switch and would like to communicate around the world. Nothing really
compares.

------
donkeyd
They're shifting their focus to health, which really concerns me. I've been a
Pebble user since day 1 and mostly love the idea of smart watches because they
can be a very easy way to get information. Unfortunately, Apple is keeping
their API's closed off, because of which Pebble is crippled on iOS. I have the
feeling that this lack of good integration is forcing them to focus on health.

------
hkmurakami
>Smartwatch pioneer Pebble is laying off 25 percent of its staff amid
increased financial concerns.

>letting 40 of Pebble’s 120 employees go.

What the math?

~~~
skrebbel
I guess it's not commonly known in HN circles, but hardware startups often
measure their staff in kilograms because it's an SI unit.

~~~
staticelf
This comment was funny.

------
jug
Smartwatches always seemed like a fad to me. Part of the point with
smartphones, at least to me, is to get rid of the watch. Smart or not. I used
a watch throughout my youth and still remember when I got watch free. My
wrists: free at last!

It's also puzzling me a bit because the appeal of watches among people where
e.g Apple is aiming their watches for given the price range, tend not to be
about supporting the latest WiFi standards or whatnot, but the value of
classic, mechanical, precise, designs.

~~~
Spearchucker
It's very subjective. I have a Pebble that I never use, a Microsoft Band that
I occasionally use, and a very, very expensive watch with an automatic
movement that keeps bad time and I never look at - but I wear all the time.
Which makes it a fashion accessory first, and a status symbol second. I
imagine you can ask 5 people about their opinions and get 5 different answers.

------
henson
It's interesting how a large majority of people, even those most
technologically-inclined and most likely to be early adopters, just don't warm
to the idea of a smartwatch.

Maybe it's the fact the hardware and software experience just isn't up to
scratch, or in my personal case, maybe people just don't _want_ that
experience. It's not the awkward stigma of talking to or interacting with your
watch in public, but it's the unnerving feeling of connectedness and
intrusion.

In fact, I wrote an article about just this last year:
[http://jh47.com/2015/04/09/Freedom-for-
wrists/](http://jh47.com/2015/04/09/Freedom-for-wrists/)

------
BinaryIdiot
I can't say I'm surprised. They hired a lot of people for a niche product that
isn't a huge seller. Sure it sells pretty well for what it is but, at least
from the outside, it never looked like it could support the huge influx of
people that they hired.

Also the number one complaint about the Pebble that constantly comes up with
every single release is the huge bezel and then their latest watch, the round,
almost appears as if it has _more_ bezel. Sorry but I just don't think it
looks attractive that way and I honestly really want one.

------
hauget
If they could get rid of that horrible bezel design, more people would
probably buy their product. I still can't understand how they shipped the
round with that HUGE bezel. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! Did no one want to tell
Eric that that was a bad idea or was he just stubborn in wanting to ship it
like that? Also, what was up with their terrible website design? SEE THIS FOR
CONTEXT -->
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141230224643/https://getpebble...](https://web.archive.org/web/20141230224643/https://getpebble.com/)
I mean, I know they wanted it to look friendly but it made Pebble look like it
was marketing a toy (or something specifically for nerds), and not a well
designed consumer product.

Honestly, there's a lot of talented people at Pebble, but their vision IMHO
has just been the wrong one. I still think they should partner with someone
like Timex, Casio or Garmin and ship something like an F-91W or a G-Shock with
PebbleOS. That would be really interesting. Hell, if they partnered with
Garmin they could probably build an awesome developer community around solid
HW.

All this said, I really admire Eric and the rest of the staff at Pebble.
They've put in a lot of hard work to ship something functional, BUT they
really need to rethink how they're marketing themselves, who they're marketing
to and what the vision of the company/product should be if they intend to
survive.

~~~
teekert
Look at the useable screen estate on these:
[https://www.google.nl/search?q=casio+watches&source=lnms&tbm...](https://www.google.nl/search?q=casio+watches&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUq6WejNnLAhXLbBoKHda5CFMQ_AUIBygB&biw=1680&bih=976#tbm=isch&q=casio+digital+watches)

You're comparing it to the wrong product. I think their vision is spot on
compared to other manufactures, I can't understand why Apple/Google don't
pursue a watch with this type of screen and battery life.

~~~
hauget
(1) The usable screen on those watches WORKS FOR THOSE WATCHES. Form follows
function sir. (2) I don't want them to literally transplant PebbleOS onto
those watches. No. That would be stupid. What I am saying is that Pebble is a
watch company first and a tech company second and that it would benefit from
having solid watch designs complement their amazing app ecosystem and OS. (3)
Apple/Google won't pursue this because they are NOT in the business of making
watches first. Apple Watch for example COMPLEMENTS an iPhone and is useless
without it. Same for Android Wear.

~~~
teekert
Ok, so then we are discussing taste, I think this is beautiful ("solid watch
design") around my
wrist:[http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2015/08/pebbleti...](http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2015/08/pebbletimesteel2-100604899-large.jpg)
Discussion stops here I'm afraid :)

As for the form follows function: The bezel/screen ratio enables longer
battery times (smaller bezel in the same casing means a more power consuming
screen and less space for the battery) so that applies to Pebble as well.

------
philippnagel
I am currently thinking getting a cheap one from eBay.

How deeply integrated is the product into the company - will the product still
be useful in case Pebble goes bust?

Can one side load apps?

~~~
fredley
You can side-load apps, but the watch is very tightly dependent on the phone
apps - without them it's essentially just a regular watch. If Pebble were to
go bust, I'd hope they'd at least open-source the api. Unless they do this,
the minute an Android/iOS update breaks the Pebble app the watches become
useless.

------
Jemaclus
I don't really have a lot to say about this article, but I do really love my
Pebble watch. 99% of the time, it's just a watch -- who needs all the other
fancy crap? But it has the nice features that make it worth it, the best of
which is just the vibration when I get a text or call.

I dunno. I think Apple Watch is overkill. But Pebble is just right. I hope
they don't go out of business.

------
koder2016
It's like building a company around Tamagotchi only without something as
revolutionary.

~~~
Retr0spectrum
I wonder why Tamagotchi didn't go for a watch design.

------
RustyRussell
I love my pebble but I wouldn't have bought one (it was a gift). The silent
alarm (doesn't wake partner in the morning) and receiving messages while
riding my bike to/from work with canned replies (mine are ETA 5,10 and 20) are
the two things I've found valuable. But neither is life-changing, and I'm not
sure if I'll replace this one should it fail.

------
mootothemax
A large part of the problem is that companies are focussing more on the
_watch_ aspect and less on the _smart-wrist-mounted-device_ aspect of such
things - for me, at least.

I have the feeling that there's a breakthrough "why didn't I think of that?"
moment not too far in the distant future from now.

Until then.

~~~
dagw
_A large part of the problem is that companies are focussing more on the watch
aspect and less on the smart-wrist-mounted-device aspect of such things - for
me, at least._

Funny you should say that. I find a large part of the problem is that
companies seem to be focusing more on the _smart-wrist-mounted-device aspect_
and less on the _watch_ aspect. I want a device that is a beautiful, high
quality watch first and some smart-wrist-mounted-device aspects tastefully
added to that.

Until then.

------
greenspot
I am so addicted to everything smart. My notebook, my smartphone, the
Internet, all my apps, my PS4. From time to time I am such an heavy ADD, I
can't focus for 10 minutes. To all smartwatch makers: I don't need another
crackdevice on my wrist.

------
djloche
PTS hardware was great, the OS was great, but phone/app/web part of the
ecosystem just never really delivered and so I sold mine a few weeks ago.

------
spdegabrielle
they never monetised their apps?

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rylest14
I don't see the appeal of wearable tech. Google Glass was a huge flop and
these smart watches aren't much better in my opinion.

Plus, I'm a sucker for a traditionally crafted, Swiss-made watches!

