There is greatness in small ambitions

I am not a Pebble user. I was not at the time or I will be with Your relaunch: Before the Apple Watch and now I have passed to Garmin. But Few technological ads have been as stimulating as that of this historic watch under a new philosophy.

“I am building a small company and focused on manufacturing these watches. I have not planned to raise money from investors or hire a great team. The emphasis is on sustainability,” he wrote Eric Migicovsky In his blog.

This statement represents exactly What the technology industry desperately needs: projects that do not aspire to master the world, but simply exist with dignity.

The current technological ecosystem operates The dictatorship of hypercrection. If you do not aspire to be a company valued in billions, Silicon Valley’s dominant culture considers you a failure. Walk or burst. This mentality has distorted technological development, transforming potential handicraft works into generic products designed to maximize investment returns. It is no accident that mobile telephony has been filled with indistinguishable terminals from each other.

The result goes there: a homogenization of innovation and the gradual disappearance of proposals that do not fit the unicorn squad. Among the few alternatives we have seen, many were born miscariated (Rabbit R1) or directly malicious (Humane Ai Pin).

But there are also happy stories. Projects such as Panic with its playdatethat of Analoguethe Keychron keyboards either The remarkable They demonstrate it: excellence does not require market domain, only a clear vision and impeccable execution.

What Migicovsky is doing is A declaration of independence. By rejecting external capital and prioritizing sustainability over the scale, it is releasing its vision of the pressures that sank the original Pebble. Himself He told us a few years ago.

The irony is very evident: what caused Pebble’s failure was not insufficient demand, but an unsustainable cost structure born of excessive expectations.

Need A new business taxonomy in technology. Among the giants who aspire to dominate the world and the projects of amateurs There should be a large ecosystem of deliberately small but professional, sustainable and profitable companies.

Every time I see a technological project that embraces their limitations instead of apologizing for them, which finds freedom in voluntary restrictionI remember why I fell in love with technology. Not because of his aspirations of omnipotence, but for his ability to express the unique vision of his creators.

The new Pebble does not intend to compete with Apple Watch and even His CEO says explicitly “Keeping he condemned to undervalue him at the time,” but to exist as a conscious alternative for a niche, not for anyone. And that is what makes it potentially extraordinary. Or at least much more valuable than its conservative strategy seems to seem.

Outstanding image | Core Devices

In Xataka | Thus Pebble failed: “The biggest mistake was not to react when we knew that the Apple Watch was going to arrive”