from Hacker News

Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

by Rifu on 3/24/16, 5:44 AM with 68 comments

• by david-given on 3/24/16, 9:45 AM

  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.)

• by adrianN on 3/24/16, 9:00 AM

  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?

• by donkeyd on 3/24/16, 9:00 AM

  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.

• by hkmurakami on 3/24/16, 6:10 AM

  >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?

• by jug on 3/24/16, 10:18 AM

  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.

• by henson on 3/24/16, 11:51 AM

  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/

• by BinaryIdiot on 3/24/16, 6:05 AM

  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.

• by hauget on 3/24/16, 7:55 AM

  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... 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.

• by philippnagel on 3/24/16, 8:47 AM

  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?

• by Jemaclus on 3/24/16, 6:03 PM

  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.

• by koder2016 on 3/24/16, 9:02 AM

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

• by RustyRussell on 3/24/16, 11:10 AM

  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.

• by mootothemax on 3/24/16, 10:29 AM

  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.

• by greenspot on 3/24/16, 11:41 AM

  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.

• by djloche on 3/24/16, 6:37 PM

  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.

• by spdegabrielle on 3/24/16, 2:07 PM

  they never monetised their apps?

• by rylest14 on 3/24/16, 11:40 AM

  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!