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fitness activity tracker smartwatch dead future apple fitbit moto pebble
Business, Editorial, Watches, Wearable Technology

Moto Gone, Fitbit Down, Apple Unsure: What Is Happening With Wearables?

December 13, 2016

fitness activity tracker smartwatch dead future apple fitbit moto pebble

After years of false starts and stalled adoption, it was beginning to look like wearables were finally finding an audience. But the past week has brought nothing but sour news making one wonder if the connected devices are nothing but a fad. First Fitbit predicted a slow Holiday quarter, then Lenovo/Motorola announced the termination of the Moto 360, next Pebble shut down and sold off its assets for a pittance, and finally IDC released embarrassingly weak 3Q Apple Watch sales numbers. What is happening? Are wearables dead or is there more to it? While we might be a bit biased, we don’t see a reason for concern, yet. Let’s take a closer look at these headlines and the health of the industry as a whole.  

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by Doug Parker
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Pebble Shut Down Fitbit Acquire Assets Intellectual Property Smartwatch
Business, Watches, Wearable Technology

Fitbit Pebble Deal Final, Details Emerge As Sales Cease

December 7, 2016

Pebble Shut Down Fitbit Acquire Assets Intellectual Property Smartwatch

As rumored, Fitbit has officially finalized their buyout of Pebble. Though, using the term “buyout” or “purchase” seems a bit misleading. In fact, Pebble sent out an email today declaring that they were shutting down the company. The communication referred to Fitbit deciding to purchase “key assets.” Therefore, counter to the original rumor, Fitbit is not acquiring Pebble. Instead, Pebble closed shop today and Fitbit was first in line to buy any meaningful assets. While a small detail, this means that the financials at Pebble were likely far worst than predicted.

If we had to guess, similar to last summer, Pebble was desperate for more cash. Likely, they once again could not find the money through VC and this time were not able to get another bank loan. Their only option at that point would be to sell or close. Pretty much confirming that line of thinking, in an email from Pebble this morning it states that they “can no longer operate as an independent entity.” This is all pretty astounding for a company that turned down a purchase offer from Citizen for $740 million in early 2015 (not even 2 years ago). Recognizing the immediate need to sell, Pebble most likely could not find a purchaser willing to acquire all assets including debt, therefore the only sound business decision left was to shut down (business school 101: shutting down is always a viable option). Details are emerging on what assets Fitbit is purchasing and what Pebble’s closure means for customers and employees.  

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by Doug Parker
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Fitbit pebble acquisition buy merger smartwatch fitness tracker value price
Business, Watches, Wearable Technology

Fitbit’s Acquisition of Smartwatch Maker Pebble Is Smart – Here’s Why

December 2, 2016

Fitbit pebble acquisition buy merger smartwatch fitness tracker value price

With fitness trackers becoming more and more of a commodity item, it is no surprise that Fitbit would be looking to expand their business. The most logical space for the company to move towards is smartwatches, after all, a smartwatch is basically a souped up, more connected activity tracker. While the company has tested the market with two devices that straddle the line between a smartwatch and fitness tracker (the Surge and Blaze), they are too much of an in-between device. Despite costing as much as a smartwatch, they are both overly sporty looking and lack the level of connectivity needed to really function as a smartwatch. A smartwatch needs an intelligent and informative OS that has app-like functionality. Instead of venturing into the smartwatch world alone, it looks like Fitbit will acquire Pebble, producers of the Kickstarter funded e-paper smartwatches.  

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by Doug Parker
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Pebble Kickstarter Repeat Ethics Fundraising Venture Financial Time Core
Business, Editorial, Watches, Wearable Technology

Why Pebble’s Reliance On Kickstarter Strikes Us As Odd

May 27, 2016

Pebble Kickstarter Repeat Ethics Fundraising Venture Financial Time Core

It is great to see one of the original smartwatch makers continue to progress and release new and updated products, but its reliance on Kickstarter is starting to become odd. We understand that Pebble found tremendous success with their original watch on Kickstarter and likes to return to the platform for the benefit of the company’s supporters and fans. But if Scrubs star Zach Braff got raked over the coals by major news outlets for funding a movie via Kickstarter, why is everyone ok with an established tech company turning to the platform for a 3rd consecutive product launch. At least with last year’s Pebble Time campaign, the products were fully developed and within weeks of shipping. This time around the devices are at least 4 to 8 months away from being in customers’ hands. The whole thing rubs us the wrong way. Yeah, yeah, yeah…you are giving customers the opportunity to show their loyalty and purchase the items at a significant discount from retail, but that could have been done other ways and closer to launch. The reality of the situation likely lands someplace a bit darker and murkier. We think there are two main reasons behind Pebble’s approach.  

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by Doug Parker
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Pebble 2 Time Smartwatch Core Fitness Wearable GPS 3G Kickstarter
Watches, Wearable Technology

Pebble Turns To Kickstarter For New Watches & Wearable

May 26, 2016

Pebble 2 Time Smartwatch Core Fitness Wearable GPS 3G Kickstarter

Pebble has announce a new Kickstarter campaign that includes refreshes to almost all of the company’s product lineup and a brand new wearable device. Both the 2012 Pebble smartwatch and 2015 Pebble Time are being updated to version “2.” The biggest headline feature for both: a heart rate monitor; both the Pebble and Pebble Time now include an integrated optical heart rate sensor. The inclusion of the sensor also means an improved Health App. Similar to Google Calendar’s new Goal feature, the Pebble app will look for available pockets of time in your schedule and encourage you to work out during those breaks. The watch will also monitor your activity and customize activity goals to fit you – not too challenging but not too easy. The heart rate data is also being integrated into activity tracking (which also is tracking steps, calories, distance, and sleep) and graphs (which shows heart rate zones, average wake up times, and more with daily, weekly, and monthly breakdowns). All of this health data, including heart rate, can also be fed to Apple HealthKit or Google Fit.  

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by Doug Parker
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Business, Editorial, Wearable Technology

Wearables Were Mostly Absent from MWC 2016, Why?

March 4, 2016

Wearables Missing MWC 2016 Why Fail category dead mobile world conference fitness trackers smartwatches

Mobile World Conference in Barcelona is typically a showplace of the newest and best cell phones that companies have to offer. At the 2015 MWC though, you could have easily have thought it was a wearables trade show. Practically every company had a fitness tracker, a smartwatch, or another form of wearable technology on display. But at MWC 2016, there were barely any wearables to be found. What happened? And is this the writing on the wall, showing consumer and company interest in wearables is just not that high?  Or are there other factors at hand?

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by Doug Parker
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Apple Watch 50 percent smartwatch market sales majority dominant android wear pebble samsung martian
Business, Watches

Apple Watch Estimated To Have Over 50% Of Smartwatch Market

January 13, 2016

Apple Watch 50 percent smartwatch market sales majority dominant android wear pebble samsung martian

While Apple still isn’t releasing any numbers, a new report from Juniper Research estimates that the company’s Apple Watch now controls over half of the smartwatch market. This echoes similar numbers from IDC from before the holidays. If true, this is big news for the California based company, which was notably late to enter the segment. The Apple Watch has only been shipping for slightly more than 8 months, while Samsung and Pebble have been selling smartwatches since 2013 and Android Wear started shipping almost 2 years ago. Juniper believes that Apple has secured 52% of the smartwatch market. Android Wear, on the other hand, comprised less than 10% of the year’s smartwatch shipments and Samsung’s Gear S2 barely made an impact. No word on Pebble’s take, but we would suspect that they also are around 10% of the market. One of the most interesting aspects of the report from Juniper is that simple smartwatches, such as the non-display models, are proving extremely popular. These devices offer activity tracking and, at most, notifications, but no apps or deeper connectivity. Specifically mentioned in the report is Martian, which produces connected watches similarly priced to a Fitbit. It is easy to see how a device like that could serve as “trial” watch, allowing the customer to see what they think of smartwatches without spending a large amount of money. Oddly, the report also mentions the popularity of a connected Guess watch and Breitling timepiece, both of which sell for more than the Apple Watch… the Breitling is actually closer to Apple Watch Edition territory.  

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by Doug Parker
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