If there was any doubt that 2016 was a bad year in the wristwear business, look no further than the 4th quarter results that Fitbit announced today. The company -- widely counted as the leader in the consumer wearables market -- had told stock analysts that it would sell about $725 million worth of trackers in the quarter; the actual number was about $580 million. Rather … [Read more...]
Is a Fitbit Smartwatch Coming? Sure Looks Like It: CES
There was nothing explicit about Ftbit's plans at CES, but the dots were there to connect. Fitbit CEO James Park told The Verge at the conference that his company was building an app store, like the one for Pebble, the assets of which Fitbit bought a month earlier. The thing about Fitbit's product line is that there's no product for apps to run on, so Park's comment was … [Read more...]
Apple Leads a Flat Smartwatch Business, Says IDC, With Garmin Strong
The authoritative market research company IDC says smartwatch sales dropped 51.6 percent last quarter from the year previous, although it suggests that the results are distorted by Apple's vast success last year. In 3Q15, when the Apple Watch was generally available for the first time, Apple sold 3.9 million units, IDC said, accounting for 70.2 percent of the market. This … [Read more...]
Pebble Lays Off 25 Pct of Staff, Blames Slow Fundraising
Pebble, the pioneering smartwatch maker, has laid off 40 people -- a quarter of its staff -- as CEO Eric Migocovsky blames a tough funding environment. Migicovsky told Tech Insider that his company would focus on the health and fitness features of his company's watches, as those are the features most in demand. Pebble's watches have had fitness-tracking features only … [Read more...]
Pebble Rolls Out Minimal Health Tracking
One of the interesting things about Pebble's smartwatch strategy is its minimalism. Feature creep has no apparent part in the company's culture; they make watches and notification devices, and motion detectors seem to have been included in later models because they're dirt cheap and take hardly any power. Now, Pebble says they'll activate the motion trackers in something … [Read more...]
Samsung Drops Out of Top Five Fitness Tracker List, says IDC
IDC's 3Q15 wearables figures are out, and Fitbit is the big winner while Samsung the big loser. The market research firm says Fitbit sold 4.7 million devices in the third quarter, twice as many as it sold in the same period last year. It accounts for 22.2 percent of the global market. Apple, IDC said, sold 3.9 million Apple Watches, for 18.6 percent of the market. It was … [Read more...]
What the Misfit Purchase Means for Wearables Startups
Misfit, which began life as a Kickstarter and became one of the best known wearables companies, was bought yesterday by a big public watch company for $230 million. That was probably its best possible end as an independent company. Misfit, over its four years of life, had raised $63 million in three rounds of funding. The products are beautiful and have a loyal following. … [Read more...]
Pebble Debuts the Pebble Round Smartwatch
Punditry that suggested that Pebble would be roadkill in the face of the Apple Watch and Android Wear is turning out have been somewhat overheated. The smartwatch pioneer has announced the Pebble Round, a thin round watch that merrily goes its own way. What's remarkable about Pebble is that it succeeds by doing only a few things well. Its watches are essentially notification … [Read more...]
Engadget is Not in Love with the Pebble Time
Pebble sold $20 million worth of its new Time watch on Kickstarter, and now deliveries have started. Engadget has the first review that we've seen, and it's pretty mixed. The chief problem isn't the "more geek than chic" look. It's the $200 price tag, which is high for a watch that has what the reviewer felt is a limited set of features. There's no touchscreen, no GPS, no … [Read more...]
Is Pebble Doing OK? Probably.
There are starting to be rumors -- most prominently picked up by TechCrunch -- that Pebble is having some problems. Despite a phenomenally successful $20 million Kickstarter round for its upcoming Pebble Time smartwatch, TechCrunch is citing "sources close to the company" as saying attempts to raise venture money are not going well, and that the company took out a $5 million … [Read more...]