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Pebble Lays Off 25% of Its Staff, Smartwatch Bubble Set To Burst? (computerworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the time-to-ditch-the-e-paper-display dept.

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.

5 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? Was there a smartwatch bubble to begin with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

  2. Submitter can't math by voights · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't that necessarily take it down to 120 people from 160?

  3. Math? by Y2K+is+bogus · · Score: 5, Informative

    80+40=120
    40/120=33.33%

    So they are laying off 33.33% of their staff, not 25%.

    1. Re:Math? by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

      80+40=120 40/120=33.33%

      So they are laying off 33.33% of their staff, not 25%.

      But they checked it on the Smartwatch calculator..

  4. Re:Huh? Was there a smartwatch bubble to begin wit by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It wasn't a very big bubble; but the hype-to-substance ratio was arguably large enough to qualify as a small one. It didn't survive contact with reality for long; but there was a brief period of delusional hope among the manufacturers and some of the talking heads that 'smartwatch' was going to be the must-have accessory and temporary reprieve from the pressure on profits caused by the fact that everyone who wants a smartphone and a tablet either already has one or is poor enough that their desire for one isn't too helpful.

    Definitely not at the level of "zOMG 3D TV! It will surely cause everyone to re-buy their television!"; but same basic hopeful delusion that a new gimmick could save them from an increasingly saturated and commodified market.