2 ms·

Think it's worth keeping in mind the state of the smartwatch market in 2017 is a fraction of what people thought it would be when Pebble was going big and the A

Think it's worth keeping in mind the state of the smartwatch market in 2017 is a fraction of what people thought it would be when Pebble was going big and the Apple Watch was a rumour. Investors were clearly hoping it was about to explode like smartphones did. I mean I don't even feel the Apple Watch will still be around in the next few years.

bryanlarsen 9y ago
Yes, hindsight certainly makes things clearer; I doubt I would have made better decisions than Pebble did. The frustrating thing is that Pebble could have had a nice $20M p.a. business selling their smartwatches. Not big enough for Apple & Google, but definitely enough to make a good profit for a small company. That 2015-2016 smartwatch hype may well have killed the market for everybody. It reminds me of the VR hype in the early nineties that killed the market for ~20 years.
ghaff 9y ago
A lot of people still wear watches. And I do like getting notifications on my Garmin watch as well as using the GPS for some activities. But, in a world where so many people also carry their smartphone with them almost everywhere, people aren't going to fiddle too much with the small device on their wrist when they can pull a phone out of their pocket.
- luck_fenovo 9y ago
  > people aren't going to fiddle too much with the small device on their wrist when they can pull a phone out of their pocket Definitely. The jump from dumbphone to smartphone was pretty huge. I can do a lot more on the go now than I could before. The jump from smartphone to smartphone + smartwatch is smaller, and possibly just lateral rather than forward. It doesn't enable many more things than just a smartphone, but it offers you a slightly more convenient way of doing some things, at the cost of another device to charge and keep track of.

2 ms·

Think it's worth keeping in mind the state of the smartwatch market in 2017 is a fraction of what people thought it would be when Pebble was going big and the A

by intoverflow2 9y ago

bryanlarsen 9y ago
Yes, hindsight certainly makes things clearer; I doubt I would have made better decisions than Pebble did. The frustrating thing is that Pebble could have had a nice $20M p.a. business selling their smartwatches. Not big enough for Apple & Google, but definitely enough to make a good profit for a small company. That 2015-2016 smartwatch hype may well have killed the market for everybody. It reminds me of the VR hype in the early nineties that killed the market for ~20 years.
ghaff 9y ago
A lot of people still wear watches. And I do like getting notifications on my Garmin watch as well as using the GPS for some activities. But, in a world where so many people also carry their smartphone with them almost everywhere, people aren't going to fiddle too much with the small device on their wrist when they can pull a phone out of their pocket.
- luck_fenovo 9y ago
  > people aren't going to fiddle too much with the small device on their wrist when they can pull a phone out of their pocket Definitely. The jump from dumbphone to smartphone was pretty huge. I can do a lot more on the go now than I could before. The jump from smartphone to smartphone + smartwatch is smaller, and possibly just lateral rather than forward. It doesn't enable many more things than just a smartphone, but it offers you a slightly more convenient way of doing some things, at the cost of another device to charge and keep track of.