• Home
  • Trends
  • Company News
  • Product News
  • Fashion
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • About
  • Contact
  • May 10, 2025

Wearable Tech Insider

The Inside Word on Wearables and Wearable Technology

You are here: Home / Trends / Pebble Watch: Product of the Year — Part 2

Pebble Watch: Product of the Year — Part 2

December 26, 2013 By Dan Rosenbaum

pebble-photo-mainThe Pebble watch may have been the first big hit of the consumer wearables space and the first big hit of Kickstarter. When Pebble’s campaign hit in 2012, it was hugely oversubscribed — a big vote for a technology and product that was, well, kind of uncertain. People put down their money anyway.

The watch shipped in early 2013, and it was … OK. A geek totem, certainly. But it may not have been until the market failure of the Samsung Gear later in 2013 that it became apparent how hard it was to do what Pebble had pulled off: build a functional watch that could receive and display notifications from any Bluetooth phone. A small and simple task, but not apparently easy.

What’s more, the watch looked good, the faces are interesting, and the watchband is a standard size that can easily be replaced. (A stroke of genius, that.)

At the end of the year, Pebble announced the imminent launch of its app store, holding out the promise of new and more interesting applications that people could carry on their wrists. Even better, it did it in a way that didn’t set out to kill the few app stores that had sprung up while Pebble was getting its own act together.

Pebble’s a work in progress, but the key word here is “progress.” They did what they set out to do, which was something useful and innovative, and they appear poised for their next act. That’s worth being one of the Products of the Year for 2013.

 

Last updated by Dan Rosenbaum on January 7, 2014.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Email

Related

Filed Under: Trends, Uncategorized Tagged With: 2013, pebble, product of the year, wristwear

← Fitbit Force: Wearable Product of the Year — Part 1 Glass: Product of the Year — Part 3 →

Recent Posts

New Use Case for Apple Watch: Red Sox Stealing Signs

Fossil Debuts Two Android Wear Smartwatches

Garmin Shows Three New Fitness Bands at IFA

Fitbit Ionic: Minimal Acceptable Product?

Intel (Finally) Ditches Wearables for AR

Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Wearables Are Far From Dead

Eyes F.lashing Before Your Life

Smarty Pants: Nadi X Yoga Leggings

Rings: How Smart Can They Be?

Upskill Closes Series B Financing, But Won’t Say How Much

Stories from Health Tech Insider

  • Remote Monitoring Drives New Personalized Treatment for Chronic Breathing Problems
  • Wearable Technology Listens for Knee Damage [video]
  • New Bandages Promise Faster Healing for Stubborn Wounds
  • CVS Acquires Telehealth Service to Bring Healthcare to the Home
  • Masimo’s New Smartwatch Addresses Privacy Concerns
  • Continuous Real-Time Diagnostics On the Go [video]

Topics

2013 android android wear apple apple watch apx labs basis battery CES ces2016 CES2017 epson finance fitbit fitness fossil fuelband garmin gear glass google healthkit intel iWatch jawbone LG market research microsoft misfit MWC15 nfc nike omate omsignal pebble recon samsung smartwatch sony sports tizen vuzix withings wristware wristwear

Copyright 2016 Center Ring Media | Site by JRMC