So what’s the plan for the future? Core 2 Duo is already sold out and can’t be ordered anymore. What will happen after the current batches of Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Round 2?
Wouldn’t it make sense to move to “normal” production rhythms and have Pebble watches available in stores again? These batches for us enthusiasts are great as a start, but they won’t create a large customer base to make the Pebble universe grow again. People need to be able to buy them on Amazon and whatsoever.
I can understand the fear of repeating what happened last time, but hey, there are lots of smaller companies selling their products through regular retailers, why shouldn’t Pebble be able to?
It would be great to see a blog post by Eric on his thoughts about this and the plans for the coming years. I hope this won’t be just a one-time run that will bring us new hardware and Eric some money, but won’t really establish Pebble on the market again.
Hey there! After the current batches of Time 2 and Round 2 are shipped we’ll be shipping orders in a regular schedule like any online store would be. You place an order, and it ships. No more batches.
Distributing in retailers isn’t something we’re interested in right now. If you read Eric’s blog post about it (https://ericmigi.com/blog/success-and-failure-at-pebble/) selling in retail was one of the reasons the previous Pebble didn’t succeed long term.
We’re interested in making devices people want and selling directly to them. No pressure, no sales quotas, and doing what we want (and need) to do.
Just wondering out loud here (don’t feel pressured to answer this), but I wonder if there will be an eventual Pebble 3 that keeps the black-and-white screen and plastic body. The biggest wish-list item I would have are better buttons, e.g. individual mechanical buttons like the Pebble Classic. Secondarily, it would be nice if it shared hardware (other than the screen of course) with the P2 and PR2.
But, maybe I should wait to get my Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Round 2 before I start wishing for new watches. You guys have enough on your plate right now.
So why don’t you take orders for the Core2Duo? Is that discontinued?
To really expand market reach, you will have to ship to merchants sooner or later. I read the blog post a long time ago and again, but you can’t blame the failure on the principle of selling via retailers - as most products in the world are sold via retailers.
Hey there, the Core 2 Duo was a limited release and won’t be sold again. The goal isn’t to expand market reach. It’s to run a sustainable company that makes products that people want.
True but it’s internal hardware configuration exists henceforth and Monochrome has a very loyal subset of Pebblers who prefer it (as per Eric’s polls early last year for example) so I bet there’s people who’d go for a “steel” duo for example
could be!
the software wouldn’t need to see it as such and thus lots of work is already done but the capabilities could be identical
What I’m effectively saying is, the commitment to support the Duo for the continued existence time of Core is there and that is a serious responsibility, considering the popularity and preference for Mono screens in a market niche it makes a lot of sense to overcome the lack of stock of the old casing by making a metal variant.
saves time, saves money, a lot of people prefer metal to plastic (majority) and theres a portion of Pebblers (e.g. Me!) who will always be thinking of any colour model “this is nice but murkier contrast than it needs to be”
Im arguing that with the commitment to support the Duo thats a commitment of X% of staff resources for what will in the medium to long term be a tiny portion of the watches out there, to not have another variant bringing income for that software profile is IMHO inefficient.
The Core guys are actually in this game, I’ve never been to China or a tech factory and have never designed a product so i defer to any realworld, touch-grass reality objectivity they have if making a metal version is actually a huge complication and waste.
Well, it looks like people want core 2 duo or it wouldn’t be sold out :-)
Regarding market reach: sooner or later you will have to expand to new customers. After having supplied the existing community with new hardware, which I guess will be completed in 2026, you need to look beyond that in order to build a sustainable company. It actually would be wise to start thinking about that now.
Second reason why market reach can’t be ignored is its importance for the whole ecosystem. Developing paid apps and watch faces only makes sense if there are enough potential buyers.
