Newsletter
There are so many smartwatches in the market today that users are spoilt for choice. However, if you’ve been around long enough, you might have heard of the Pebble watch. Heck, you might even own one. If you’re still holding onto it, you might be interested to learn that Google has released the source code for the Pebble smartwatch, and here’s what it means for you.
Keeping the Pebble dream alive
As some of you already know, Fitbit, who bought Pebble, was acquired by Google. With the constant changes in owners, many had assumed that the Pebble smartwatch was essentially dead and gone, a piece of tech lost to history.
However, in a surprising move, Google decided to release the source code for the Pebble smartwatch. What this means is that it will allow the community to continue development on the software, ultimately keeping the smartwatch alive and potentially adding new features and offering improvements to the wearable.
In many ways, Pebble’s former founder and CEO, Eric Migicovsky, is to thank for this. Migicovsky had approached Google and requested the company to release the source code to the public. This was after it became clear that there were no plans to develop new products around it. To his surprise, Google actually agreed. The company conducted an internal review before releasing it on GitHub.
That being said, it won’t be entirely smooth sailing from here on out. Google had to release some of its proprietary code before publishing it. This means that code for chipset support and Bluetooth stack is missing, so developers must build it themselves. This could prove challenging, but at least developers can now build off the original source code.
Kickstarter darling
Pebble initially launched on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform back in 2012. The company had a relatively small target of $100,000, but by the end of its Kickstarter campaign, it managed to raise a little over $10 million. This, at the time, made the Pebble smartwatch the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever.
Pebble existed at a time when smartwatches and wearables were relatively new. This allowed them to gain a foothold in the market. Unfortunately, the arrival of more Apple, Samsung, and Fitbit players made the scene much more competitive.
Despite the company’s valiant efforts, it eventually sold itself to Fitbit. This led to the company shutting down while Fitbit integrated some of Pebble’s into its own wearables.