Smartwatch biz Pebble says smartwatch biz Apple won't approve its new app – surprise The makers of the Pebble smartwatch are moaning that Apple is taking its sweet time to approve the latest bug-fixed version of the Pebble Time iOS app. Completely coincidentally, Apple just recently launched its own smartwatch. Team Pebble claims the official Apple App Store is stalling its approval of the Pebble Time software …
We have a problem on the anti trust front. In that Apple will claim they have less the 50% market share and android has more, I think Blackberry and Windows phones are also available.
Although Android is part of the Google empire it is spread a lot more thinly, as each phone maker Sony, Samsung, etc. are all competing for you cash. So although Apple have less share, their share is a lot bigger than the rest and they do make the most of it (Who can blame them?)
But by the time it goes through the legal stuff, it gets messed up and no one can see what is really going on.
I wish i could say i was suprised to see this happen again. Apple did this with the first Pebble app, but it did get through eventually.
At the time it seemed to me to be a case of Apple demonstrating that they had the power to halt the progress of Pebble, and that was before Apple even had a stake in the smartwatch game.
Hopefully this is just Apple, again, proving that it is their yard, they get to chose who plays and that if they wanted to, they could shut Pebble down (on iOS at least), but they're not going to, because they have nothing to fear.
Personally, I find stories like this yet another incentive to stay away from the fruity walled garden. If you create something that hits with success, there's always the chance that Apple will decide it's so neat, they should incorporate it into the core of their system and then dismiss your "competing" app. IP rights might mitigate things somewhat, but there are often ways to work around those that big companies have the deep pockets to pursue.
The Pebble is really the smart watch equivalent of the ZX Spectrum - quite charming in an unfinished retro kind of way, but an anachronism whose time has already passed.
I can't see many iPhone owners wanting a plastic Pebble on their wrists - that'd be way past ironic and deep into 'your mum still does your laundry' territory, so Apple's move may be doing us all a favour.
Remember folks: if you're over 30, your watch should be made of metal and should tick.
Actually you have that wrong. My Pebble STEEL is made of metal and has a battery life of over a week. "quite charming in an unfinished retro kind of way, but an anachronism whose time has already passed." would apply to those items that need a brightly coloured screen to attract owners, but have a battery life measured in hours....
Plus lets bear in mind that a fairly high percentage of people on this site probably got their first taste of computing on the Spectrum
What utter tosh.
I have a Pebble Steel and wouldn't swap it for either an Apple Watch or an Android Wear jobbie. It has an always on display (just like a watch), it is waterproof to 5atm, has a solid steel case and lasts 7 days on one charge.
It will also work with Android or iPhone and has a free and open API and a cloud based IDE for developing apps and faces.
Compare that to the Apple watch Sport which costs twice the price of the Pebble Steel. Non persistent display, Not waterproof, aluminium case, battery lasts less than a day. You can't write or obtain 3rd party faces and can only develop apps for it if you pay Apple for the privilege and own a Mac.
Not sure if you are just trolling or are such an ardent fanboi that you cannot comprehend that a competing product can be better than Apple's finest but, when it comes to the features that make a watch (smart or otherwise) usable and practical, the Pebble Steel wipes the floor with the Apple Watch, and for half the price of the cheapo "sport" model.
You downvoters are all missing the point: It's not about whether the pebble is better or worse than the Apple Watch, but as an adult you should realise that a smart watch is a child's toy and your wrist, a piece of limited real estate, deserves better. Arguing about walled gardens vs open APIs is entirely irrelevant here.
Humour me: take a look at the sites of any decent watch company - then look at any smart watch. Spot the difference?
As a long-time Apple user ( Servers and heavy-llifting workstations - before I am accused of being a fanboi, only interested in shiny shiny...) and a full-time Pebble wearer for well over a year, I can say I am one of those people.
But, my concern is that Apple is going a little... How shall I put this ... Microsoft? with its 'not invented here' & ' protect the cashflow! ' mindset.
I love my Pebble, and find it to be the most useful piece of tech I have purchased in the past 3-4 years. I was an early adopter, and have got used to the being on smartwatches/wearables bleeding edge. However, and Apple take note , a watch is a highly personal thing- much more so than a phone. I identify with it far more than my iPhone now - which realisation really surprised me when I realised that Apple are slowly strangling Pebble support.
I will get a AppleWatch, but it does not offer the things I value in my Pebble. It has a whole different set of compromises and advantages. But for the first time in 25 years I am seriously thinking of stepping away from Apple's beautifully manicured walled garden - I will no longer be an advocate for the brand and its values.
'Tis a sad, sad, day for me, but I doubt if Apple need to care anymore
It will affect a fair proportion of the Kickstarter record backing project.
Pebble is the most sorted smartwatch out there, focused on the practical and useful along with hobbyist developers rather than the shiny and bling.
I would consider abandoning Apple if they mess with Pebble. I'm not keen on iOS, but unfortunately the only alternative phone platform that will work with Pebble is unbearable for me.
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Ok, I've just seen my boss's new Pebble Steel, and it is way more classy than my old school plastic Pebble, so I guess the point about the old Pebble looking a bit cheap stands.
However "Remember folks: if you're over 30, your watch should be made of metal and should tick."
Really? I was born in 1980 and I've not worn a ticking watch for years, are you going to tell me I should only use a non-smartphone in my advanced years? Perhaps my car from 2001 is a bit too new fangled for your taste, should I be driving something steam driven?
Cue Pathé music and Bob Danvers Walker's voice.
"And it's all hands on deck at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino as Apple prepares the new Apple Watch. Even the App Store censorship team are picking apart App Store submissions to find out how to get their shiny expensive new watch to actually do something before the battery runs out. The pressure is on... can they reverse-engineer enough smartwatch software so they've got something to announce before WWDC comes round? Their pals across the room at Apple TV certainly couldn't. Never mind chaps, the App Store censorship team are here to save the day. If their reverse engineering isn't quite up to snuff their rejection skills will surely kick out those evil Pebble smartwatches and corner the market all for themselves."
A few weeks after buying my Pebble (last year) I dumped my iPhone and went Android. This was entirely down to the fact that the Apple integration/functionality was poor when compared to Android.
Well done Apple, your refusal to play fair ensured that I left your walled garden, and found that the other gardens are equally as good as yours.
In respect to the current Apple behaviour, I'm sure that this will leave a nasty taste in the mouth of kickstarter Pebble buyers. Some will leave Pebble (and probably go and buy the next gen iWatch to ensure this doesn't happen again) and some will leave Apple for Android.
In the medium term I think this will impact Pebble sales to iPhone owners, which is exactly what Apple want.
>I'm guessing that Apple hasn't yet got around to mourning your departure.
I never said they would :) Just saying that behaviour like this pushes people away. I used to have an Apple phone, their behaviour means that I no longer do. Apple are a currently fashionable brand(*), once the next fashion comes along, who will be left buying Apple products?
>Number of Apple Watches seen on wrists this week: 6
number for me : 0
>Number of Pebble Watches seen on wrists this week: 0
number for me : 2
Perhaps that means that I hang around with geeks/engineers and not salesmen in cheap wine bars :)
I'm sure Apple will sell a shedload of iWatches, but that doesn't mean that they should restrict access to their phones to other watches too. That's the kind of behaviour that gets them into trouble with the EU, but only after they've destroyed their rivals business.
(*) just like Blackberry were....just sayin'
Number of Apple Watches seen on wrists this week: 6
Number of Pebble Watches seen on wrists this week: 0
It's long been the case that *perceived* market share of Apple devices is greater than *actual* market share for one simple reason; Apple users tend to be fanboi-ish and flash their devices in peoples faces, whereas uses of other devices just STFU and get on with using them
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