Strash Pioneer and Kickstarter Darling Pebble jackets return in a new form

Four years after the launch of the most profitable group financing campaign in the history of the Cake Starter, the Pebble suddenly ended. I closed the start of the 2016 devices By submitting insolvency, before selling it to Vitteb. The fitness tracking giant built a large part of the ion smart watch with the help of the former Pebbles, along with the company’s pioneering programs.

The first Apple Watch was launched in mid -2015And start absorbing a lot of oxygen outside the room. However, it will be excessively to simplify the situation greatly to indicate that it was just another case of Sherlock. Apple, after all, the public interest eventually sparked the theater for countless other smart hours yet.

It can be said that Pebble was cursed with insight and was simply very early for space. The founder and CEO Eric Megkovsky may argue that the company’s rapid growth and expansion of features caused the loss of Pebble in his initial vision. Certainly it will not be the first time that devices have been started because of this fate.

Eight years after selling the company to Fitbit, Migicovsky is ready for the second round. “We are restarting the gravel,” told Techcrunch with a huge smile in the Monday Zoom call. This, however, is excessive simplification. After all, after five years of starting starting, Fitbit was sold to Google. While the Pebble brand finally faded as the company was absorbed the first time, the program giant still has technology and all its IP.

The planned Migicovsky company is still in the idea stage, you need a new name-something that no one has wandered by the co-founder of Beeper and the former Y Compinator partner. His decision to announce the Pebble 2.0 in its cradle is the product of a decision that greatly affiliated with Google on Monday.

Although he has no plans to deliver Pebble as a brand, Google returns to its roots by Open Dooting The Smartwatch Software Software. While the former Pebble staff remained on board the Google plane where the company poured more resources in its smart operating system, and Wearos, it is not clear – if any – of Pebble technology in products such as the Pixels.

“This is part of Google’s effort to help and support volunteers who met to keep the Pebble watches after the original company stopped in 2016,” Google writes in A. Blog post.

By accessing open sources to Pebbleos, Google opens the door for new third -party devices. The unveiled smart start of Migicovsky is the first in that list. The founder tells Techcrunch that he threw himself in a full -time project and will be able to accelerate things with the opening of Pebbleos. However, he is currently his only employee, although there are plans to bring another in March.

The startup goals are appropriately modest. Migicovsky says he simply wants to make the watch he wants, given that the gravel he wears to this day is now a decade of time. He says, “I have tried everything else.” “I have very high standards.”

These, according to a new Blog post On Migicovsky personal:

• Always electronic paper screen (it is reflective, not emission. Sunlight is readable.
• Long battery life (something less to ship. It’s annoying to need additional cables when traveling)
• A simple and beautiful user experience about a basic set of features I use regularly (notifications, notifications, music control, warning, weather, calendar, sleep/step tracking)
• buttons! (To play/stop/skip music on my phone without looking at the screen)
• Horbusted (it is clear that you cannot even write your watches for Apple Watch? This is the wilderness. There was more than 16 kilos in the Pebble App Store!)

During her relatively short life, Pebble sold 2 million smart hours. It is an impressive achievement in the world of startups for devices, but in the end it is not enough to maintain the required momentum.

Despite his time in YC, Migicovsky does not have any VC collection plan. Also, he does not plan to return to the Cake Starter model that led to gravel the first time. He is currently on the project himself and says that he plans to build it modestly, based on the consumer’s interest.

As for whether the audience remains a pebble in the world of post -apple monitoring, it laughs, “There is no less than dozens of us.” It is noted that the brand is still asking for it active subredditEight years after its doors were closed. A small reselling market has emerged around the old devices, although anyone has bought part of the consumer electronics in the past two decades can tell you, the devices do not last forever.

Migicovsky plans for the company to meet the specific needs of those who want exactly what he put in its blog publication. It is difficult to determine the number of people who are eager to the product in a world where the Apple has changed the user’s expectations significantly, but it is betting that it is not in his desires.

“This is a passion project. Megikovsky says about building a startup to create a product he wants to wear.” We’ll achieve this. “

Although he was in its cradle, he visited Migicovsky Shenzhen in an attempt to achieve the current situation of manufacturing. He says: “It turns out that making devices is much easier than it was 10 years ago.” There were no smart watch factories. We had to say to factories what to do. “

He also says he is confident about the start -up start -up ability to build a new pebble for the current era. “The difficult part is the program.”

By opening Pebbleos, Google made this much easier.