IIRC they got out over their skis financially. Eric did a podcast interview where he talked about what went wrong, I think it was this one. [1]
He's self-funding this company and doing pre-orders, which means that risk should not exist this time around.
But to GP's point, I agree that Pebble knows what smartwatches are, and they make the best ones. But it turns out that lots of people want (or have been convinced by marketing that they want) a wrist-worn computer, which has been a boon for Apple/Google.
I think the new Pebbles will convert a lot of people because the battery life skips two orders of magnitude (in the time sense), going from ~1 day to ~1 month. That and the slick user interface should be attractive to folks who are considering upgrading their AWs as the battery degrades. Some will realize that they don't need all the computer-y functionality that the AW provides and just go with a Pebble. The fact that they're a bit cheaper, and available in a nice-looking round case is an added bonus.
Like a lot of people, I assumed I would like AWs, and that they would continue to evolve to better and better battery life. But they haven't approached Pebble territory and I can see that the functionality they provide is not worth the tradeoff for me. I just don't care to tap at a computer on my wrist. Maybe other people do, but I'd bet that Eric's going to win over a lot of AW users who realized they are overkill.
He's self-funding this company and doing pre-orders, which means that risk should not exist this time around.
But to GP's point, I agree that Pebble knows what smartwatches are, and they make the best ones. But it turns out that lots of people want (or have been convinced by marketing that they want) a wrist-worn computer, which has been a boon for Apple/Google.
I think the new Pebbles will convert a lot of people because the battery life skips two orders of magnitude (in the time sense), going from ~1 day to ~1 month. That and the slick user interface should be attractive to folks who are considering upgrading their AWs as the battery degrades. Some will realize that they don't need all the computer-y functionality that the AW provides and just go with a Pebble. The fact that they're a bit cheaper, and available in a nice-looking round case is an added bonus.
Like a lot of people, I assumed I would like AWs, and that they would continue to evolve to better and better battery life. But they haven't approached Pebble territory and I can see that the functionality they provide is not worth the tradeoff for me. I just don't care to tap at a computer on my wrist. Maybe other people do, but I'd bet that Eric's going to win over a lot of AW users who realized they are overkill.
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5I0rM2ORc