The Rebirth of Pebble
Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble, is charting a unique course in his reboot of the popular smartwatch brand and the introduction of an AI ring. With a small team, a business model that avoids pre-manufacturing inventory, and no external financing, Migicovsky’s new company, Core Devices, is diverging from the typical startup model.
The New Pebble: Not a Startup
“We’ve structured this whole company to be a sustainable, profitable and hopefully long-term business, but not a startup,” Migicovsky shared with TechCrunch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Image credits:Pebble
Migicovsky appreciates the role of startups in fostering innovation, but he sees the new Pebble as a revitalization of an existing idea rather than a brand-new concept. “Startups are good for the world,” he said. “You have to have money to build new ideas and create something. But it’s not a new idea,” Migicovsky said, referring to the smartwatch reboot. “It’s an old idea. We’re just bringing it back.”
Lessons Learned from Past Experiences
Migicovsky’s previous venture, the original Pebble company, was acquired by Fitbit in 2016 for around $40 million. Fitbit was later bought by Google for $2.1 billion. He acknowledged the challenges Pebble faced, particularly during the Christmas 2015 period when an over-purchase of inventory put the company in a difficult position.
“Hardware is different from software. You have to predict in advance how much you’re going to sell, because you have to build the hardware,” Migicovsky explained. The company forecasted sales of $102 million but achieved only $82 million. Despite this being an impressive figure for a smartwatch brand not associated with tech giants like Apple, Google, or Samsung, Pebble was left with unsold inventory that had to be discounted.
Moving Forward with Core Devices
With the lessons learned from the original Pebble, Migicovsky is steering Core Devices in a different direction. The new Pebble smartwatches are not designed for everyone, but rather for people like him: enthusiasts who love hacking, building, and creating things. He’s aiming for the watches to be companions to phones rather than their replacements.
Image credits:Pebble
Through Core Devices, Migicovsky and his small team have announced the Pebble Time 2 smartwatch, a round-faced Pebble Round 2, and a $75 AI smart ring called the Index 01. The company operates differently than before, with a lean team of just five people and selling products directly to consumers on its website.
PebbleOS: The Lifeline of New Pebble
The new Pebble smartwatches operate on PebbleOS, an open source smartwatch operating system graciously provided by Google. Without PebbleOS, the rebooted Pebble smartwatch would have been impossible, as it took a team of 30-40 people years to originally build it.
Image credits:PebbleOS documentation website
Future Prospects of Core Devices
So far, the new structure of the company is proving successful, with 25,000 pre-orders for its smartwatches and about 5,000 for its AI Ring. The company is in a “comfortable place,” where its expenses are covered and it can fund new projects. While Migicovsky remains tight-lipped about the specifics of future products, he hints that they’ll be the kind of things he personally wants to have—unique, fun, simple items that improve life one step at a time and work together.
Image credits:Pebble
As the new Pebble continues to evolve and improve, the team also plans to relaunch the SDK for developers in the coming weeks. This is the latest step in the remarkable journey of Pebble, which is being rebooted with a clear vision and a commitment to sustainable growth.
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