Slashdot Mirror
Pebble Lays Off 25% of Its Staff, Smartwatch Bubble Set To Burst? (computerworld.com)
tripleevenfall writes: Pebble is laying off 25% of its employees -- that's 40 pink slips -- taking it down to just 80 people. It seems indicative of the smartwatch market's terrible state. Previously the darling of the crowdfunding fraternity -- it raised over $30 million on Kickstarter -- Pebble is finding it hard to keep the plates spinning in 2016.
The layoffs were confirmed by Pebble's CEO Eric Migicovsky, who implied that venture capitalists are now less keen on funding the smartwatch category.
The layoffs were confirmed by Pebble's CEO Eric Migicovsky, who implied that venture capitalists are now less keen on funding the smartwatch category.
I'm not sure how a product that hasn't received widespread adoption and hasn't been promoted that much could be considered a bubble...
Wouldn't that necessarily take it down to 120 people from 160?
I would certainly expect Pebble to be less insulated from any downturn/loss of confidence than the internal teams doing 'smartwatch' at Apple, Google, or any of the Android OEMs, since they neither have a large host organism to quietly hide losses in, nor any claims to some sort of 'product synergy' nonsense; but my impression(if anyone has actual data, either for or against this, I'd be interested to know) was that Pebble had been atypically successful given the rather narrow appeal of the 'smartwatch' concept with their size and battery life friendly keep-it-simple-stupid design and relatively broad compatibility.
Is my impression wrong; and Pebble is actually starting to suffer as competing products with tighter 'ecosystem' tie-ins have gotten vaguely more competent and less in need of being nearly cellphone sized to get even a day's battery life? Is my impression correct; but either Pebble or their backers, or both, can't really think of too many additional incremental improvements to the KISS-based design that would be worth the cost of keeping the extra staff? Was the market simply so tiny that the few people who wanted one are already saturated and everybody is having issues moving product?
No, that's the problem- it isn't. The number of people who want to wear a watch is incredibly small. You have a small number who have to due to job (nurses, for example)- but they don't need a smartwatch, they just need a hands free second hand. You have a small set who wear it as a fashion statement, but they want metals and gems and fancy that will last a long time, not an electronic screen that will last 2 years.
The number of people who actually want a smartwatch is ridiculously small- single digit percents of the population, possibly less. Everyone else is ok taking their phone out of their pocket.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
...Is a pretty strong sign that there's zero interest in digital wearables.
It's been pretty definitively proven that you can't reliably use a smartphone (or smart-device) with a screen smaller than 480 x 360 and about 2.4" (the screen on the most popular Blackberry, the "Curve" in the 2007-2010 era).
Everyone who absolutely needed a smart watch bought one with the initial roll out of the Pebbl and iWatch. People buying it now are simply either just now able to afford one, or...?
Even Apple themselves have said that 4" is about the ideal size for a portable smart device screen. Given that 27-45mm is the ideal size for a watch face, that's way, WAY too small to do what people think it can do.
I can see smart bracelets monitoring heartbeat and miles walked, but it's been pretty conclusively proven that average citizens will never wear a screen of any significant usefulness on their arm.
moox. for a new generation.
I will stick by my original statements when they released this crop of smart watches. Until the battery life is measured in months (preferably at least 6) then you can keep em. A watch isn't even needed by most people nowadays and those that actually benefit from a smartwatch are an even smaller audience.
Pebble is this generation's Palm. A great product which did what it did well.
Destroyed by inferior products from bigger companies with color screens and more integration.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Let me get this right:
1. Company A makes gadget that is an answer to a question nobody asked.
2. Company A gets press for selling said gadget to early adopters who buy it just to have it, but it still doesn't solve a problem that anyone has.
3. Massive consumer electronics companies (Samsung, Apple, LG, Motorola) get in on the action, creating massive competition for a small market, growing it marginally and creating new features that make the product marginally more useful.
4. Company A now has a product that is less featured, and is not as quick to replace with a more full featured product due to resource constraints, and sales plummet.
5. Company A is forced to lay people off due to the inevitable economics of their situation.
6. "The smartwatch bubble set to burst" doom and gloom story.
Slashdot editors are fucking amazing.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Most of us wear a watch anyway, so the concept of a smartwatch is a good idea. The problem with smartwatches and startups like Pebble is that the technology is too new and the benefit is too small. Everyone has a smartphone and a watch. Smartphones took off quickly because it was like moving from a horse and buggy to an automobile. A smartwatch is like moving from a desktop computer to a portable. The 'Compaq' was the first reasonable portable, and it was essentially a desktop monster with a keyboard for a lid to protect the screen and keep dirt out. People did not flock to this because it weighed almost 30 pounds and was less capable than their desktop. Today's laptops weigh something like 6 pounds and are about as powerful as their desktops and everyone has one.
People would replace their broken watch with a smartwatch and leave their phone in their pocket if the technology was mature. Even Apple has this problem. The Apple Watch is a good idea, but everyone wants Apple Watch 2, or maybe even Apple Watch 3 before they buy one. Wait until the device matures. Apple can wait for that. Pebble can't.
I assume I will own a smartwatch ... someday. But probably not for a couple of generations from now. ...and Pebble will probably not be around by then.