 Hi Kickstarter, my name is Eric. This is my smartphone. And this is my Pebble. Back in the spring of 2012, a small company called Pebble launched a project on Kickstarter promising a new take on smartwatches. The project proved wildly successful, both legitimizing Kickstarter as a platform and establishing the modern smartwatch market. Three years later, Pebble is going head-to-head with the tech industry's biggest players. CEO Eric Majdakoski doesn't seem particularly worried though. 2014 was a massive year for us. We grew our developer base from just a few thousand developers to over 26,000 developers by the end of the year. We launched an app store, growing from zero apps to over 6,500 apps now. And we sold our millionth unit. Following the original Pebble smartwatch and the Pebble Steal that came in 2014, the company is now launching its newest product, Pebble Time. Pebble Time has a color e-paper screen. It's still always on. That means you don't have to tap a button or flick your wrist just to see what time it is. The battery life is still up to seven days. And it's daylight readable. That's really important to us. We're taking the spot of the watch on your wrist. And so one of the primary functions that Pebble always has to do is be a really damn good watch. When we started this project, one of the issues we wanted to address was, are we a smartwatch? Are we a phone on our wrist? Or are we a watch? There's all this talk about fashion or technology, and I don't believe Pebbles either. And so we tried to avoid one or the other, yet strike our own path. The new watch is a logical progression of the Pebble design. It's slimmer, lighter, and slightly more attractive than Pebbles earlier models. But it's not likely to be mistaken for an Apple Watch or a Samsung Gear. It almost looks like a Tamagotchi on your wrist, and it has a playfulness that makes it closer to the original Pebble than the Pebble Steal. There's a slight curve, and it sits on your wrist nicer than Pebbles previous designs. But perhaps the biggest change Pebble made to this watch was the switch to a color e-paper display. It's not nearly the same kind of display as Android Wear watches or we'll find on the Apple Watch, but it lets Pebble developers work with 64 colors instead of just two. It's more like the screen on a Game Boy Color than a modern color smartphone display. There's also a new microphone, which lets you dictate quick replies to incoming messages and create voice notes. The market's expanded. There's a bunch more people making smartwatches. It would be crazy to say that we don't try every single one of them and see what works well. In particular, we've tried the voice on other smartwatches. The best feature that we found was responding to notifications. The issue with a lot of other products is that it doesn't usually work. We wanted to make sure that we would be able to build a system that works. We did that by constraining it down to something that we know we can deliver. But the time is just one component of Pebble's broader ambitions. The company is also launching an entirely new software platform that throws out all of its old paradigms and incorporates a new structure based on an idea of a running timeline. There's this urge to do more with your watch, to control things in your life, to receive information. But the structure that we had put together for Pebble's operating system didn't really enable that. And so we constructed a completely new operating system around the concept of your own personal timeline. I'm here on my watch face. It can be our watch face or any of the watch faces you love. And I want to see what's coming up next. So I just click down. In 10 minutes I have a meeting. Cool. Sunny. Reminder, I need to pick up the kids. There's a movie today, so I can click and see that. We know that a lot of people not only care about what's coming up next, but you're out of a meeting, you want to see if you missed something. So I can just click up, oh, super important email or a game that I was interested in or I just did my 8,000 steps. They're all here. Now, how do existing apps, watch faces, integrate with this new timeline? So it's still the same way. You click in and you can see what we call app faces. So this is the music player. You can see the stocks app. And whatever apps you've installed, there'll be here. We have no limit right now in apps. So you can install how many ever apps you want and they're here. Pebble says that all of the thousands of existing watch faces and apps that developers have already created will be able to integrate with this new timeline. But developers won't even have to go far as building apps specifically for the Pebble. A new web interface will let them inject data right into the Pebble's timeline and let the watch display in the most logical way it can. All of this makes Pebble less of a specific smart watch maker and more of a wearable platform provider. Along with this refocus on Pebble as a platform has come a new focus on whimsical and informative design. It's a stark departure from the utilitarian look of Pebble's older software. It looks like from what we've seen of this new platform that Pebble is introducing, the design is a much bigger focus than it was before. Why is that? Well the main reason for that is actually I think the screen. And it has, it brings with it a lot of character of its own, even without design. You have these things that look a little bit like, you know, e-paper glitches. You know, it stretches a little bit. So we took that and actually worked with it. You know, we pushed it a little further. Another thing was orientation. When you look at the actual transitions, they are morphing. Instead of like taking you from one place to another place, which is a lot of, I think, mental burden when you start looking at this and it's a very, very small portfolio. The company is actually going back in time for the launch of the new watch. It's making it available via Kickstarter beginning today. The time will be available to early backers for a discounted price of $159 and it will cost $199 when it hits proper retail channels in May. The importance of this launch for Pebble can't be understated. It's coming amid an entry by Apple into the wearables world. Last year's launch of Android Wear failed to make its biggest splash as many were expecting, but there's no doubt that Google is working hard to change that. Do you think that there is room for a third smartwatch player once Apple and Google hit their stride? I think the answer is 100% yes. I think it would be a disservice to the world to say that there's only going to be two smartphone operating systems and by definition those are the two smartwatch operating systems as well. When we look at the problem of how do you build software for the watch, we're not thinking exclusively of how it works with Android or how it works with iOS. We don't have a legacy of developers and thousands and millions of apps that we have to support out of the box. We can think about what deserves to be on the wrist. We're still in the very early days of smartwatches and wearables, much like the pre-iPhone smartphone world. Pebble is hoping to use its early mover status to its advantage and establish itself as a major player before the market really matures. The time and its new software lean into Pebble's established strengths, long battery life, always on display, cross-platform compatibility, and rapid software iteration. Whether those strengths are enough to hold Pebble up in the battle to come remains to be seen, but Michakowski is more confident than ever that Pebble's approach is the right one. You know, trying to put yourself back in the 2007 smartphone era, when you try to ask 2007 Eric what features he'd be using on his smartphone in 2015, and I would probably get a lot of them wrong. We're probably in the 2007 days of smartwatches. But when you think about it, there's years and years ahead of us in improving the technology and building new functionality and building new ways that we can interface between your smartwatch and the rest of your life. And that's why we're here. We were a bit surprised that it took some people two years to actually get into the game after we published the entire project on Kickstarter back in 2012. But sure enough, other people have arrived, and we take it as a continuing challenge. This is what we do.
 Hi Kickstarter, my name is Eric.
 This is my smartphone.
 And this is my Pebble.
 Back in the spring of 2012, a small company called Pebble launched a project on Kickstarter
 promising a new take on smartwatches.
 The project proved wildly successful, both legitimizing Kickstarter as a platform and
 establishing the modern smartwatch market.
 Three years later, Pebble is going head-to-head with the tech industry's biggest players.
 CEO Eric Majdakoski doesn't seem particularly worried though.
 2014 was a massive year for us.
 We grew our developer base from just a few thousand developers to over 26,000 developers
 by the end of the year.
 We launched an app store, growing from zero apps to over 6,500 apps now.
 And we sold our millionth unit.
 Following the original Pebble smartwatch and the Pebble Steal that came in 2014, the company
 is now launching its newest product, Pebble Time.
 Pebble Time has a color e-paper screen.
 It's still always on.
 That means you don't have to tap a button or flick your wrist just to see what time
 it is.
 The battery life is still up to seven days.
 And it's daylight readable.
 That's really important to us.
 We're taking the spot of the watch on your wrist.
 And so one of the primary functions that Pebble always has to do is be a really damn good
 watch.
 When we started this project, one of the issues we wanted to address was, are we a smartwatch?
 Are we a phone on our wrist?
 Or are we a watch?
 There's all this talk about fashion or technology, and I don't believe Pebbles either.
 And so we tried to avoid one or the other, yet strike our own path.
 The new watch is a logical progression of the Pebble design.
 It's slimmer, lighter, and slightly more attractive than Pebbles earlier models.
 But it's not likely to be mistaken for an Apple Watch or a Samsung Gear.
 It almost looks like a Tamagotchi on your wrist, and it has a playfulness that makes
 it closer to the original Pebble than the Pebble Steal.
 There's a slight curve, and it sits on your wrist nicer than Pebbles previous designs.
 But perhaps the biggest change Pebble made to this watch was the switch to a color e-paper
 display.
 It's not nearly the same kind of display as Android Wear watches or we'll find on
 the Apple Watch, but it lets Pebble developers work with 64 colors instead of just two.
 It's more like the screen on a Game Boy Color than a modern color smartphone display.
 There's also a new microphone, which lets you dictate quick replies to incoming messages
 and create voice notes.
 The market's expanded.
 There's a bunch more people making smartwatches.
 It would be crazy to say that we don't try every single one of them and see what works
 well.
 In particular, we've tried the voice on other smartwatches.
 The best feature that we found was responding to notifications.
 The issue with a lot of other products is that it doesn't usually work.
 We wanted to make sure that we would be able to build a system that works.
 We did that by constraining it down to something that we know we can deliver.
 But the time is just one component of Pebble's broader ambitions.
 The company is also launching an entirely new software platform that throws out all
 of its old paradigms and incorporates a new structure based on an idea of a running timeline.
 There's this urge to do more with your watch, to control things in your life, to receive
 information.
 But the structure that we had put together for Pebble's operating system didn't really
 enable that.
 And so we constructed a completely new operating system around the concept of your own personal
 timeline.
 I'm here on my watch face.
 It can be our watch face or any of the watch faces you love.
 And I want to see what's coming up next.
 So I just click down.
 In 10 minutes I have a meeting.
 Cool.
 Sunny.
 Reminder, I need to pick up the kids.
 There's a movie today, so I can click and see that.
 We know that a lot of people not only care about what's coming up next, but you're out
 of a meeting, you want to see if you missed something.
 So I can just click up, oh, super important email or a game that I was interested in or
 I just did my 8,000 steps.
 They're all here.
 Now, how do existing apps, watch faces, integrate with this new timeline?
 So it's still the same way.
 You click in and you can see what we call app faces.
 So this is the music player.
 You can see the stocks app.
 And whatever apps you've installed, there'll be here.
 We have no limit right now in apps.
 So you can install how many ever apps you want and they're here.
 Pebble says that all of the thousands of existing watch faces and apps that developers have
 already created will be able to integrate with this new timeline.
 But developers won't even have to go far as building apps specifically for the Pebble.
 A new web interface will let them inject data right into the Pebble's timeline and let
 the watch display in the most logical way it can.
 All of this makes Pebble less of a specific smart watch maker and more of a wearable platform
 provider.
 Along with this refocus on Pebble as a platform has come a new focus on whimsical and informative
 design.
 It's a stark departure from the utilitarian look of Pebble's older software.
 It looks like from what we've seen of this new platform that Pebble is introducing, the
 design is a much bigger focus than it was before.
 Why is that?
 Well the main reason for that is actually I think the screen.
 And it has, it brings with it a lot of character of its own, even without design.
 You have these things that look a little bit like, you know, e-paper glitches.
 You know, it stretches a little bit.
 So we took that and actually worked with it.
 You know, we pushed it a little further.
 Another thing was orientation.
 When you look at the actual transitions, they are morphing.
 Instead of like taking you from one place to another place, which is a lot of, I think,
 mental burden when you start looking at this and it's a very, very small portfolio.
 The company is actually going back in time for the launch of the new watch.
 It's making it available via Kickstarter beginning today.
 The time will be available to early backers for a discounted price of $159 and it will
 cost $199 when it hits proper retail channels in May.
 The importance of this launch for Pebble can't be understated.
 It's coming amid an entry by Apple into the wearables world.
 Last year's launch of Android Wear failed to make its biggest splash as many were expecting,
 but there's no doubt that Google is working hard to change that.
 Do you think that there is room for a third smartwatch player once Apple and Google hit
 their stride?
 I think the answer is 100% yes.
 I think it would be a disservice to the world to say that there's only going to be two
 smartphone operating systems and by definition those are the two smartwatch operating systems
 as well.
 When we look at the problem of how do you build software for the watch, we're not
 thinking exclusively of how it works with Android or how it works with iOS.
 We don't have a legacy of developers and thousands and millions of apps that we have
 to support out of the box.
 We can think about what deserves to be on the wrist.
 We're still in the very early days of smartwatches and wearables, much like the pre-iPhone smartphone
 world.
 Pebble is hoping to use its early mover status to its advantage and establish itself as a
 major player before the market really matures.
 The time and its new software lean into Pebble's established strengths, long battery life,
 always on display, cross-platform compatibility, and rapid software iteration.
 Whether those strengths are enough to hold Pebble up in the battle to come remains to
 be seen, but Michakowski is more confident than ever that Pebble's approach is the
 right one.
 You know, trying to put yourself back in the 2007 smartphone era, when you try to ask 2007
 Eric what features he'd be using on his smartphone in 2015, and I would probably get a lot of
 them wrong.
 We're probably in the 2007 days of smartwatches.
 But when you think about it, there's years and years ahead of us in improving the technology
 and building new functionality and building new ways that we can interface between your
 smartwatch and the rest of your life.
 And that's why we're here.
 We were a bit surprised that it took some people two years to actually get into the
 game after we published the entire project on Kickstarter back in 2012.
 But sure enough, other people have arrived, and we take it as a continuing challenge.
 This is what we do.