I really don’t understand the significance of this. If there were really a market for epaper watches, why did no one make them for the last 10 years? Was PebbleOS really so amazing that no one could replicate anything similar?
At the time it made way more sense because the “traditional” smart watches were way worse. Not even one day battery life. I would say Pebble still wins on size though - actually normal watch sized.
As for why they didn’t catch on… Probably a little bit ahead of their time, and also less shiny.
The Pebble platform doesn’t make it super easy to monetize itself beyond hardware sales. There’s no reason to make a watch like this from a business perspective. Plenty probably could, but no one with the resources to do it properly wanted to make something similar.
Was PebbleOS really so amazing that no one could replicate anything similar?
Probably no-one just took the responsibility to start doing it for free. Foss projects usually start from one or couple bored people just really wanting something so bad they’ll start putting big hours to make it real
I really don’t understand the significance of this. If there were really a market for epaper watches, why did no one make them for the last 10 years? Was PebbleOS really so amazing that no one could replicate anything similar?
At the time it made way more sense because the “traditional” smart watches were way worse. Not even one day battery life. I would say Pebble still wins on size though - actually normal watch sized.
As for why they didn’t catch on… Probably a little bit ahead of their time, and also less shiny.
I would drop my Galaxy Watch in a second if I could get a brand new pebble on better hardware with more sensors.
it’s a niche market, like not enough people wanting to buy a compact sub-5" flagship phone, so i’ll never get one. let people enjoy it :)
Oh, don’t me wrong, I will likely buy one. I am the target audience.
But either it’s a niche market with not enough customers or it isn’t. The OS doesn’t change that.
The Pebble platform doesn’t make it super easy to monetize itself beyond hardware sales. There’s no reason to make a watch like this from a business perspective. Plenty probably could, but no one with the resources to do it properly wanted to make something similar.
Except the creator said he will be selling a new one…
Hobbyists do lots of stuff that companies won’t.
It’s not a hobby, he’s going to sell them.
Probably no-one just took the responsibility to start doing it for free. Foss projects usually start from one or couple bored people just really wanting something so bad they’ll start putting big hours to make it real
Who said anything about free?
Usually it starts “for free” and if you’re lucky you might earn something from it