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> Over the next few years, we sold 2 million watches and did over $230m in sales. According to Wikipedia: The Apple Watch was released in April 2015 and quickl

by js2 5y ago

> Over the next few years, we sold 2 million watches and did over $230m in sales. According to Wikipedia: The Apple Watch was released in April 2015 and quickly became the best-selling wearable device: 4.2 million were sold in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. In a single quarter, Apple sold twice as many watches as Pebble did in total. Pebble was doomed once Apple entered the market to be anything but a niche product.

COGlory 5y ago
What's wrong with being a niche product?
- HWR_14 5y ago
  In the electronics field, a niche project means less economies of scale, a much high COGS and a higher final pricepoint.
- js2 5y ago
  Nothing, but I don't think that was the company's aspirations.
- headsoup 5y ago
  Nothing. People just expect things to be magically cheap, fast and high quality or it's somehow unviable, unless Apple (or other massive brand) do it. I think the same people maybe don't even understand why someone might want a high quality product, and be willing to pay for it.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  You can't be a small player with hardware when big players exist in the same category. Customers start to ask why the watch costs as much as an Apple Watch but contains an 8th of the features.
xmaayy 5y ago
"Apple sells millions of iPhones, therefore Android phones (samsung, Xiaomi, etc) are doomed" I have a Garmin watch, an apple watch, whoop, etc (not all on at the same time of course). Different people want different things, ex: apple watches should be charged daily, but the pebble could be charged weekly. That in itself is a big selling point. I'm sure there were many such differences that could make for a successful product.
- darkwizard42 5y ago
  Gotta ask… what is the whoop giving you that Garmin + TrainingPeaks or some other workout program isn’t? I’m assuming you are training for something serious/seriously training since Apple Watch is usually sufficient for more steady state working out.
  - xmaayy 5y ago
    I had the Garmin first, and a colleague recommended whoop specifically for sleep / recovery tracking. I got the apple watch as a gift, which has since taken over most things because of the wonder WorkOutdoors app :)
- js2 5y ago
  As you say, there are essentially only two mobile platforms today, and only one of them has really been successful extending that platform to a watch. If none of the Android device makers have been successful selling a smart watch, what hope did Pebble have? So again, Pebble's only hope was to remain a niche product. They were never going to compete in Apple's market. It's fine to remain a niche product, but I don't think that was Pebble's aspiration. (I too have a Garmin watch and I gave my Apple Watch away to my sister because it didn't fit my use case. I hope you recognize that having multiple smart watches makes you not just a niche user, but a niche niche user.)
  - kcb 5y ago
    > If none of the Android device makers have been successful selling a smart watch, what hope did Pebble have? Samsung, Huawei, etc. have quite successful smart watch lines. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartwatch-market-2021/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartwatch-marke...
taeric 5y ago
This is a bit of a difficult comparison. Apple also spent orders of magnitude more on marketing the product. Probably an order of magnitude more developing it.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  No one is suggesting Pebble did anything wrong. But that they had been rapidly crushed by Apple and it was clear the company had no future.
  - taeric 5y ago
    My point was you had to take those factors together. Yes, they had a smaller market, but they were also spending far less to have that market. It may have been doable. Edit: consider, by market size alone, fountain pens probably shouldn't exist anymore; per that argument.
wvenable 5y ago
Often a competitor entering the market increases the overall market for everyone. Pebble definitely could have survived as the high-battery life minimal alternative to the Apple watch and obviously be well ahead of whatever was going on with Android watches.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
I don't see why. There are billions of people around the world who own phones, and certainly not all of them are iPhones.

by js2 5y ago

COGlory 5y ago

What's wrong with being a niche product?

HWR_14 5y ago
In the electronics field, a niche project means less economies of scale, a much high COGS and a higher final pricepoint.
js2 5y ago
Nothing, but I don't think that was the company's aspirations.
headsoup 5y ago
Nothing. People just expect things to be magically cheap, fast and high quality or it's somehow unviable, unless Apple (or other massive brand) do it. I think the same people maybe don't even understand why someone might want a high quality product, and be willing to pay for it.
Gigachad 5y ago
You can't be a small player with hardware when big players exist in the same category. Customers start to ask why the watch costs as much as an Apple Watch but contains an 8th of the features.

xmaayy 5y ago

"Apple sells millions of iPhones, therefore Android phones (samsung, Xiaomi, etc) are doomed" I have a Garmin watch, an apple watch, whoop, etc (not all on at the same time of course). Different people want different things, ex: apple watches should be charged daily, but the pebble could be charged weekly. That in itself is a big selling point. I'm sure there were many such differences that could make for a successful product.

darkwizard42 5y ago
Gotta ask… what is the whoop giving you that Garmin + TrainingPeaks or some other workout program isn’t? I’m assuming you are training for something serious/seriously training since Apple Watch is usually sufficient for more steady state working out.
- xmaayy 5y ago
  I had the Garmin first, and a colleague recommended whoop specifically for sleep / recovery tracking. I got the apple watch as a gift, which has since taken over most things because of the wonder WorkOutdoors app :)
js2 5y ago
As you say, there are essentially only two mobile platforms today, and only one of them has really been successful extending that platform to a watch. If none of the Android device makers have been successful selling a smart watch, what hope did Pebble have? So again, Pebble's only hope was to remain a niche product. They were never going to compete in Apple's market. It's fine to remain a niche product, but I don't think that was Pebble's aspiration. (I too have a Garmin watch and I gave my Apple Watch away to my sister because it didn't fit my use case. I hope you recognize that having multiple smart watches makes you not just a niche user, but a niche niche user.)
- kcb 5y ago
  > If none of the Android device makers have been successful selling a smart watch, what hope did Pebble have? Samsung, Huawei, etc. have quite successful smart watch lines. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartwatch-market-2021/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartwatch-marke...

taeric 5y ago

This is a bit of a difficult comparison. Apple also spent orders of magnitude more on marketing the product. Probably an order of magnitude more developing it.

Gigachad 5y ago
No one is suggesting Pebble did anything wrong. But that they had been rapidly crushed by Apple and it was clear the company had no future.
- taeric 5y ago
  My point was you had to take those factors together. Yes, they had a smaller market, but they were also spending far less to have that market. It may have been doable. Edit: consider, by market size alone, fountain pens probably shouldn't exist anymore; per that argument.

wvenable 5y ago

Often a competitor entering the market increases the overall market for everyone. Pebble definitely could have survived as the high-battery life minimal alternative to the Apple watch and obviously be well ahead of whatever was going on with Android watches.

stjohnswarts 5y ago

I don't see why. There are billions of people around the world who own phones, and certainly not all of them are iPhones.