Hasta La Gadget!

Founder of smartwatch startup Pebble Eric Migicovsky took the stage at Disrupt, interviewed by our own John Biggs. He addressed head on the recently revealed competition from smartphone giant Samsung, and talked about what Pebble does that no other competitors out there have necessarily nailed down, and why he thinks their approach will continue to prevail despite mounting interest from top-tier, established hardware makers.

Migicovsky said that everyone seems to be ignoring the reason that Pebble was a success to begin with, which mainly has to do with identifying use cases for a wearable device. He argued that a smartwatch should “flow into the background” of a user’s life, and that the way to convince people to put one on is to show them how it can be useful to their life, but at the same time essentially become a background process, rather than something that requires major changes in how you live on a daily basis.

Asked directly about competitors, Migicovsky was quick to point out that OEMs have been making smartwatches for years, including Samsung, LG, Sony, Motorola and many others. Once again, he argues that all those companies are ignoring the reasons that people are interested in smartwatches to begin with – they want something that will “mesh into your life,” have long battery life, and not have to be babied and coddled for fear of getting it wet or inadvertently smashing it up.

The overall vision for the Pebble is one of a “thin client,” Migicovsky says. “We think the best computer you have is the one sitting in your pocket,” he argues, referring to the smartphones most of us now carry. Those have great screens, touch input, 3G and 4G connectivity and more. There’s no need to replicate that, but instead the real opportunity is to build a control device not only for that phone, but for other connected devices in your life, too. He mentioned wrist-based thermostat control, as well as connection with bike sharing terminals, and pointed to the RunKeeper integration as a perfect example of how they envision Pebble slotting into people’s lives.

For those who haven’t tried it out, RunKeeper’s Pebble integration replaces the screen when you start the app and start a run from your phone, showing you distance travelled, pace and more. Ideally that’s how Pebble would work on a much broader basis, becoming contextually the most appropriate tool for whatever you’re doing, whenever you’re doing it.

That’s why when Biggs asked him about Pebble 2.0, or what the next-generation device would look like, Migicovsky demurred and said it’s the same hardware you currently have on your wrist. Software is the next stage for Pebble, he contends, with the ultimate aim being partnering with developers to build out that ecosystem and help Pebble work with plenty of sensor and new apps to become a more generally useful tool for any given context.

Migicovsky also dodged a second attempt to get details of next-gen hardware when Biggs framed a question in light of Apple’s rumored iWatch. The Pebble founder wouldn’t speculate as to how Pebble might have to change to compete with an Apple wearable, and reiterated that software is the future. Of course, it’s never good policy for a device maker with something currently on shelves to talk about next-generation products, but for now at least, Migicovsky and Pebble seem to be all about developing the software ecosystem to explore the full potential of what they’ve already built.

Backstage Interview

Last week, geek-focused early smartwatch player WIMM Labs was revealed to have been acquired by Google, lending strong support to earlier speculation that the search giant would enter the watch-based computing fray with a wearable-device follow-up to its ambitious Google Glass project. Consider it the opening bell as the race begins to own consumer wrists, and expect more targets of opportunity to get cleared off the board this coming Wednesday once Samsung gets the ball rolling with what will likely be the first smartwatch entry from a major player.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear appears to be a decent enough lead-off batter for the smartwatch line-up; rumors suggest it’ll have a decent internal processor (1.5GHz dual-core), 1GB of RAM, a 4 -megapixel camera with 720p video capture, a 2.5-inch OLED display and 10 hours of battery life. @evleaks has offered up screenshots that purportedly show the Android phone for controlling the Gear and its settings, and it looks like a lot of what we’ll see in the Gear in terms of functionality will resemble what we’ve already seen from devices like the Pebble.

There’s a decent amount of consumer interest in devices like Pebble, which had sold 275,000 devices to date as of July through pre-orders and Kickstarter, and the Hyetis Crossbow, an absurdly expensive smartwatch from a Swiss watchmaker that has already managed to rack up 300 sales – which sounds weak until you realize that each of those 300 people are paying $1,200 for their Crossbow. But none of these devices from smaller startups is doing anywhere near the kind of numbers that an Apple or a Samsung would require to make a product sustainable.

Others like MetaWatch haven’t revealed just how well they’ve been doing yet, but the Fossil spin-out did have a successful Kickstarter run for its Strata smartwatch. MetaWatch and Pebble (whose creators have been building smartwatch devices since the inPulse) in particular look like choice acquisition targets as OEMs like Samsung and Apple look to bolster their smartwatch expertise ahead of a device launch.

Some big companies. like Sony, have a head start in terms of in-house experience. It built a Bluetooth watch back in 2008, and followed that with the Sony Smartwatch, which is getting a sequel soon. But others including LG and the countless additional OEMs probably investigating this space following all the hype that’s been generated have good reason to be on the lookout for an easy talent acquisition.

Hardware startups are difficult in terms of making something sustainable and making something that can scale with demand while keeping costs low for end users. It’s a challenge that convinced MakerBot it was better to partner up with a larger, more experienced company through acquisition, and it could eventually do the same for Pebble and its ilk. The only problem now might be whether it’s too late to join up with anyone who’s looking to build such a device, or whether the bulk of the talent/expertise land grab has already taken place.

$10,311,220. It isn’t sufficient to greenlight Canonical’s innovative hybrid smartphone, but it is just enough to beat the sum raised by the Pebble smartwatch and thereby steal the crowdfunding record. Well, sort of, at least. It depends on whether the amount pledged is all that matters, regardless of whether the project actually comes to fruition — as happened with both the Pebble on Kickstarter and Indiegogo’s previous record holder, the Scanadu Scout. More importantly though, Ubuntu Edge may have reached the point where it’ll have a second chance even if it doesn’t achieve the required backing of $32 million: Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth told the BBC that some manufacturers have noticed all the hubbub and have come “out of the woodwork” to discuss taking the Android / Ubuntu concept forward, such that August 21st may not prove to be a terminal deadline.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Ubuntu Edge (Indiegogo)

Eric Migicovsky is an unlikely hardware mogul. His first product, the Pebble Smart Watch, came to him after experimenting with watch designs and then caught fire, going from $0 to $10 million in funding on Kickstarter. His watch captured imaginations and inspired a new craze for usable, powerful smart wearables.

He also has excellent taste in hats.

We’ll be talking about what’s next for Pebble, how his retail expansion is going, and what it takes to make a hardware startup in a software-heavy environment. I’ve made it a personal mission to bring cool hardware guys like him onstage for every Disrupt, and I’m pleased that we got the coolest of the cool.

Disrupt SF takes over The San Francisco Design Concourse from September 7 to 11. Tickets are currently on sale here. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, opportunities can be found here.

Eric Migicovsky
Pebble, CEO

Eric Migicovsky is the founder of Pebble Technology, the company behind the Pebble smartwatch. He helped create the largest Kickstarter project to date.

You can follow him on Twitter at @ericmigi. He lives in Vancouver and attended the University of Waterloo.

Pebble Smart Watch passes the 275,000 preorder mark.

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