this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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410
The Pebble Has Been Brought Back (store.repebble.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
99 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google recently open sourced Pebble and today, Repebble has put some of the watches up for preorder.

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Yeah, I get that. My question is why Eric (or literally anyone else) didn't just re-make the Pebble (or similar) under a different name at any time in the last 10 years? Why did they wait for the OS to be open sourced instead of just making a new one?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago

Making a new OS isn't easy as others have said, but it's also helpful that Pebble OS has a bit of a following. There are still people who are very vocal about how much they love/loved their pebble watches. Making a new OS that's inspired by PebbleOS would be met with more skepticism than just releasing a watch with an OS that people already know that they like.

Assuming that he made no major changes to the software, pebble fans almost already know what they'll be getting out of this product. You couldn't say the same for a watch with a new OS.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago

Some reasons:

  • It's a lot of work no one wants to do given there are half-decent proprietary alternatives
  • Eric wasn't sitting twiddling his thumbs
  • The corporate landscape wasn't nearly as hostile to users until the last few years
[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Methinks you underestimate the complexity.

And all the other watch makers I've looked at are not doing, or even considering, what Pebble did.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

That guy is intentionally obtuse and acts in bad faith. Pebble's IP and software were sold to Fitbit. Then Google bought Fitbit. Then Google made PebbleOS open source this year. It couldn't be made until now.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Methinks you underestimate the complexity.

Maybe I do. But there are dozens of Chinese no-name companies who developed entire smartwatch ecosystems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Dozens? Name three, and be sure to include number of aps in each ecosystem.

I'm sure there are dozens of Chinese smart watches, but most that I've seen are white-labels and sorely missing an ecosystem.