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A Smart Watch That’s a Watch
Although it seems obvious that a smart watch should function well as a watch first and foremost, this seems to be something often overlooked by Pebble’s competitors. However, Pebble has always been focused on time, which especially shows in the new software interface accompanying the brand new Pebble Time and Time Steel. It’s called the timeline, and it’s one of many features of the Pebble which indicates their focus on time. Others include the 7-10 day battery life, which values the user’s time, and the always on, colour e-paper display which shows the time at a glance under all lighting conditions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″ animation=”none” column_padding=”padding-4-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″][vc_column_text]
Pebble Time: A Summary
Pebble describes the Pebble Time as “the next generation Pebble smartwatch. It has a color e-paper display with up to 7 days battery life, sports a built-in water resistant microphone, and runs a new time-centric operating system designed to give you immediate access to the most important information you need throughout your day.”
Pebble Time’s Kickstarter Page[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″ animation=”none” column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″]
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What Makes Pebble Special?
I think that Pebble has seen the success it has because of a few key areas of their strategy. They are very clear about the fact they are trying to create something that is complementary to a smart phone, but doesn’t replace the smart phone. Their features, hardware, and interface all reflect this philosophy. There is a reason none of their watchers have a speaker on them. If you are going to talk on your phone you should do that on your phone. The wrist is primarily suited to small bites of glance-able information, which is why having an always on display is so valuable. No one wants to type out a message on 1.5″ touch screen, in fact, touching a screen that small at all is likely to cover up a large portion of the screen. Therefore, I think their decision to stick to buttons is a great one, and having only a few to use requires thoughtfulness and innovation in order to remain intuitive and simple. I wonder if they would have even come up with the timeline structure to get easy access to information in as few clicks as possible if they were working with a touch surface. They also are providing the potential for added value by opening up the option for anyone to develop “Smart Bands”, or bands that connect to the watch and contain additional components, sensors etc to add specific functionality. This is very different than apple’s approach which is essentially keeping their bands entirely proprietary. In fact Pebble also is also ahead of Apple in terms of battery life, price and current available apps. Pebble was first to define the smart watch space, and is continuing to innovate with their newest watches. Demand is clear with their two record making kickstarter campaigns, and I am looking forward to seeing how they preform against the other big players.
Included below are some videos, from left to right: Pebble Time’s Kickstarter Video, A Description of the Timeline Interface, Pebble Time Steel Ad, and Verge’s Video about Pebble Competing with Apple.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
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