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Four years after launching the ( then ) most moneymaking crowdfunding campaign in Kickstarter ’s chronicle , smartwatch maker Pebble abruptlyclosed in 2016 , filing for insolvency before being betray off to rival Fitbit . The fitness - tracking giant go on to build much of its Ionic smartwatch with help from former Pebblers , along with Pebble ’s pioneering software mint .
It could be reason that Pebble was simply too former to the space . The Apple Watchlaunched in mid-2015and proceeded to suck much of the oxygen out of the way . It would be massively oversimplify the situation to suggest that it was just another grammatical case ofSherlocking , however . Apple , after all , raised public pastime , ultimately setting the point for countless other smartwatches after .
In fact , father and CEO Eric Migicovsky believes instead that the company ’s speedy growth and feature expansion have Pebble — which sold 2 million smartwatches — to lose mass of his initial visual sensation . It certainly would n’t be the first fourth dimension a hardware startup was felled by such circumstances .
Yet Migicovsky is quick for circle two . “ We ’re re-start Pebble , ” he told TechCrunch with a massive grin on a Zoom call Monday . How , exactly ? While Pebble branding faded after the company was bought , its acquirer , Fitbit , was itselfsold offto Google in 2021 .
Now Google , which still owns the engineering and all of Pebble ’s IP , project to open source the smartwatch brand ’s software passel .
“ This is part of an effort from Google to avail and support the unpaid worker who have come together to wield functionality for Pebble watch after the original company ceased surgery in 2016 , ” Google wrote in ablog poston Monday .
By open source access to PebbleOS , Google is get to the door to new third - party computer hardware , and Migicovsky ’s smartwatch startup is first on that lean .
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It ’s still in the idea level , he articulate . The ship’s company needs a newfangled name — something the Beeper carbon monoxide - founder and former Y Combinator partner has n’t quite gotten around to . But he narrate TechCrunch that he has thrown himself into the project full clock time and will be able to accelerate thing as access to PebbleOS opens up . He is presently its only employee , but there are plan to bring on another around March .
The inauguration ’s finish are suitably humble . Migicovsky enounce he only desire to make the sentinel he wants , given that the Pebble he wears to this day is now a decade old . “ I ’ve tried everything else , ” he says . “ I have very mellow standards . ”
Those are , concord to a newblog poston Migicovsky ’s personal site :
In malice of his metre at YC , Migicovsky has no plan to produce VC fund . Nor does he design to return to the Kickstarter mannikin that gave cost increase to Pebble . He is presently ego - funding the task and enounce he design to build it modestly , base on consumer pursuit .
As for whether an audience remains for Pebble in a post - Apple Watch macrocosm , he jokes , “ There are at least scads of us . ” He notes that the stigma still commands its ownactive Subreddit , eight twelvemonth after shut its doors . A small resale securities industry has protrude up around Old devices , though as anyone who has bought a piece of consumer electronics in the retiring two decades can tell you , hardware does n’t last constantly .
Migicovsky await the caller to suffice the specific demand of those who require just what he laid out in his blog post . It ’s difficult to say how many people hanker for the discontinued Cartesian product in a creation where Apple has dramatically shifted exploiter expectations , but he ’s depend on not being alone in his desires .
“ This is a passion project . I have a vested interest in making the watch , ” Migicovsky says of build a startup to create a product he desire to weary . “ We ’re go to make this pass . ”
Despite being in its infancy , Migicovsky has visited Shenzhen in a bid to scope out the current country of fabrication . “ Turns out making hardware is much gentle than it was 10 years ago , ” he says . “ There were no smartwatches factories . We had to differentiate the factories what to do . ”
He also enounce that he feels confident about the small startup ’s ability to build a new Pebble for the current era . “ The hard part is the software . ”
By opening up PebbleOS , Google made that bit well easier .
