The name of ‘Pebble’ is one of those that cause nostalgia in anyone who recognizes it. In his day, it seemed that he was going to represent the beginning of a new era in the ‘wearables’, only to disappear dramatic; Now, Pebble’s spirit has a great opportunity to return for everything big, and all thanks to Google.
Pebble was born in the era of ‘crowdfunding’, when it seemed that everything was possible if enough people contributed some money. The original project used Kickstarter to obtain financing to create an smart watch, accumulating more than 10 million dollars, at that time the most successful project of the platform. The result was a ‘wearable’ device like no otherwhich stood out for its black and white screen to consume less battery and for the possibilities explored with the user community.
Unfortunately, Pebble’s story did not last long. After the failure of Pebble 2, Fitbit was quick to acquire most of his assets, although he really did not do much more with these beyond maintaining the support for existing users. In turn, Fitbit was bought by Google in 2021, and Since then Pebble remains in Limbo as one of the many brands owned by the giant. Although the user community has continued to maintain and develop its watches, it has not had much help. Until today.
Google has announced that has released the source code of pebbleosthe operating system used by Pebble watches, so that anyone can download and modify it; And it is the best gift that the community could have received. Instead of recovering the Pebble brand and re -launching devices with its name, Google has chosen to help volunteers and brand fans who continue to keep it alive with independent developments.
With the release of the Pebbleos source code, these enthusiasts now have a free way to continue developing the system and adapt it to new devices; And that is just what they are going to do. Eric Migicovsky, creator of Pebble, has already announced the development of a New smart watch spiritual successor of the original model and that will use pebbleos; Migicovsky has publicly thanks Google for releasing the code, which will allow the plans it already had to revive these devices.
The new migicovsky watch will be based on an electronic ink screen, to keep the aesthetics in black and white and the commitment to a long -term battery. Instead of complicating things and trying to compete against smart watches with Wear OS, Migicovsky promises that he will maintain simple things and have learned the lesson of the Pebble 2. The new clock will basically have the same characteristics as the original pebble, and that is why he Development team will not be large, and it doesn’t even plan to search for investors for the project.
It should be clarified that the Pebble brand is still owned by Google, and therefore, the new watch will not be able to use that name. But apart from that detail, we are facing a legendary device for enthusiasts.
