I have had my Pebble watch for about a month now and I can
tell you it is an amazing bit of technology.
As I have sifted through all the ways is has allowed me to change
behaviors for the better, I have also realized that there are a couple of
larger impacts that the Pebble is having that few seem to notice.
Impact #1: Pebble and
the Phablet
My son remarked to me the other day about the growth of the
screen size of phones that are coming to market and how some will no longer fit
in many pockets. I remarked that the
baby boomers like me are happily plunking down lots of cash for these larger
screens rather than hunt for reading glasses every time an email or text
message arrives. In fact, even without
eyesight issues, larger phones are just easier to read even though they are not
designed for a “holster” connected to a belt or purse strap. My Pebble with its Bluetooth connection means
I do not need to pull out my phablet phone every time an alert happens. This is a big nuisance removed from my life.
The Pebble watch face may be a bit small, perhaps even
blurry for un-aided eyes, but I can tell what type of alert set my wrist to
buzzing and whether or not the cause is worth digging out my phablet. I suspect that as more phablet-sized phones
get sold, the convenience that Pebble offers will become as desired as the Bluetooth
headset that these large phones really need.
Impact #2: The Birth
of an Industry
Many of you may well be too young to recall the Apple Newton
or the Casio Boss. Neither survived long
as both suffered from various missing functionality. Enter the Pilot, the name “Palm” came later. Initially, like the Pebble, the Pilot arrived
with a slightly different objective in mind than that of the preceding PDAs. The Pilot was designed to be more than an
organizer and configurable to the needs of the users. Its size allowed it to be held comfortably in
one hand with data entered via a stylus and a “strange” form of shorthand we
know as Graffiti.
Initially, the Pilot was a novelty and many critics lamented
the need for more software. The fact of
the matter is that out of the box, the Pilot allowed the user to keep track of
their contact list and calendar and take notes among the handful of apps
available. It also synchronized the
various apps on my desktop computer. The
simple design was the personification of the niche for which it was designed; a
device that was small, easy to access, suitable PDA applications, decent
battery life and extensible via SDK. It
was meant to complement the bulky desktop computers we all had along with pens
and paper. Turns out, the Pilot was the
right combination of features and the market took off.
The Pebble is history repeating itself. The initial release has a limited set of
software apps with more coming via the SDK.
The market niche being addresses is uniquely defined not as a computer
on my wrist but as a notification-enabling extension of my phone. Personally, I do not want a computer on my
wrist. Costs too much and the screen
would be too small. I did not buy a
Pilot because I wanted a PC in my pocket.
I did not buy a Nano and make it into a watch because it did not and
does not have the functionality that I want.
The Pebble does exactly what I want; let me screen the phone-based
alerts without having to drag out my phone.
As the developer community continues to build apps and
Pebble continues to expose more of the inner workings of the Pebble to the
developers, look for the idea of “phone extension” to become a monster market.
Accelerometer, magnetometer, CPU, memory, backlight and buttons. Imagine apps on your phone with remote
control functions on your Pebble.
OnStar. Are you listening? Home automation via Pebble? Just
scroll the Pebble screen, hit a button and change the thermostat setting. How many apps are on your phone today for
which interactions via a small screen and a couple of buttons would mean no
need to drag out the phone?
While the Pebble may appear to have lots of competitors
today and in the near term, none have the price point and focused niche that
can be found in Pebble. Like the initial
Pilot, the Pebble has nailed the combination of features and launched a race to
lead this new market. I, for one, cannot
wait for the pace to pick up speed.
I’d like to get your thoughts on these ideas and on
Smashtalk. Please visit my web site @
www.smashtalk.net.
