Four years after the start of the Kickstarter’s most advantageous crowdfunding campaign, SmartWatch Maker Pebble was suddenly closed in 2016 and filed for bankruptcy before being sold to Rival Fitbit. Fitness tracking giants have continued to build many AEON smartwatches with the help of former Pebblers, along with the pioneering software stack of Pebble.
Pebble can simply claim that the space is too early. The Apple Watch was released in mid -2015 and sucked many oxygen from the room. However, it simplifies the situation very much, suggesting that it is just another case of Sherlock. Apple eventually raised public interests and ultimately set up a countless other smart watch.
In fact, the founder and CEO Eric Migikovsky believes that Peble, who sold 2 million smartwatches, has lost his first vision with the rapid growth and functions of the company. Certainly, this is not the first time a hardware startup has been defeated by such a fate.
However, Migicovsky is ready for Round 2. “We will resume Peble,” he told TechCrunch with a big smile on a zoom call on Monday. How to be accurate? Pebble Branding declined after the company was purchased, but its acquisition Fitbit was sold to Google in 2021.
Currently, Google, which owns technology and all IPs of Pebble, will open a smart watch brand software stack.
“This is part of Google’s efforts to support and support volunteers gathered to maintain the Pebble Watches function after the original company stopped the business in 2016,” Google said on Monday. I wrote it in a blog post.
With open sourcing access to Pebbleos, Google opens the door to the new third -party hardware, and MIGICOVSKY’s Smartwatch startup is on the list.
He says it is still at the stage of the idea. The company needs a new name. He was a co -founder of a beeper, and his former Y combination partner did not aim much. However, he tells Techniccrunch that he can accelerate things as he is thrown into the project in full time and access to Pebbleos is opened. He is currently the only employee, but he plans to invite another employee around March.
Startup goals are properly humble. Migicovsky says he just wants to make a watch he wants, given that he is now wearing pebbles 10 years ago. “I tried everything else,” he says. “I have a very high standard.”
These are new blog posts on Migicovsky’s personal site:
Always on the electronic paper screen (it is reflexive instead of radioactivity. It is easy to read sunlight. Gran serve. It does not distract others like a bright wrist) Long battery life (one few charged. User experience around the core set (time, notification, alarm, calendar/step tracking) button (I can play my mobile phone! Pause/skip) Hacking (apparently, can’t you even write your own watch face for Apple Watch? That’s wild. The Pebble App Store had a 16K clock face!)
Despite his era at YC, Migicovsky has no plans to procure VC funds. He doesn’t plan to return to the Kickstarter model that caused the Pebble. He says he is currently raising his own funds and planning to build it modestly based on consumer interests.
He is joking about whether the audience remains in the world of the app watch for the Penbe. He pointed out that eight years after the brand closed the door, it is still ordering its own active SURREDDIT. The small resale market appears around the old device, but anyone who has purchased home appliances in the past 20 years will not last forever.
Migicovsky hopes that he will respond to the specific needs of those who want to be laid out on the blog post. In a world where Apple dramatically changed users’ expectations, it is difficult to say how many people longing for a canceled product, but he bets that he is not alone.
“This is a passion project. Migicovsky talks about building a startup to create the product he wants to wear.” We are going to realize this. “
Despite the early stage, Migikovsky visited Shenzhen to exclude the current manufacturing status. “Making hardware is much easier than 10 years ago,” he says. “There was no smartwatch factory. We had to tell the factory what to do.”
He also says he is confident in the small startup ability to build new pebbles in the present era. “The difficult part is software.”
Google made it much easier by opening Pebbleos.