Pebble Is Officially Pebble Again

Pebble smartwatches are officially reclaiming their iconic name after Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky successfully recovered the Pebble trademark. "Great news -- we've been able to recover the trademark for Pebble! Honestly, I wasn't expecting this to work out so easily," Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky writes in an update blog. "Core 2 Duo is now Pebble 2 Duo. Core Time 2 is now Pebble Time 2." The Verge reports: As a refresher, Pebble was one of the OG smartwatches. Despite a loyal customer base, however, it wasn't able to compete with bigger names like Fitbit, the Apple Watch, or Samsung. In 2016, Pebble was acquired by Fitbit for $23 million, marking the end of the first Pebble era. Along the way, Fitbit was acquired by Google. That's important because the tech giant agreed to open-source Pebble's software, and Migicovsky announced earlier this year that Pebble was making a comeback. However, because Migicovsky didn't have the trademark, the new Pebble watches were initially dubbed the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2.

"With the recovery of the Pebble trademark, that means you too can use the word Pebble for Pebble related software and hardware projects," Migicovsky writes, acknowledging Pebble's history of community development.

"core 2 duo"?

[Anonymous Coward]

seriously, what the fuck? was "pentium" not a good name for a watch?

Re:"core 2 duo"?

[93 Escort Wagon]

They rebranded it Core 2 Duo after multiple focus groups responded negatively to the original code name - Celeron.

Re:

[sound+vision]

STOP.

Pebbletime!

Sure but how?

[jacks smirking reven]

Did Google let them have it? License it? If they weren't using it they had to surrender it? The name was tied to license of the software?

BAM

[cstacy]

You would think the smartwatchs that help
you keep fit would be "Bam Bam", not Pebbles.

Someone suggested "Pentium", but I don't want
a wearable whose AI will have attention division bugs.

But will they support my Allerta inPulse?

[sinkskinkshrieks]

It's bad enough a mutual acquaintance of mine had to pickup my original order.

Anyhow, good for Eric getting un-acquihired from Fitbit/Google.

Re: But will they support my Allerta inPulse?

[Jeslijar]

Just in time to sell after his next kickstarter ships for even more millions!

Itâ(TM)s the circle of liiiiiiiife⦠itâ(TM)s the wheel of fortune⦠so long as the MBA gets to sell the same shit again and get that phat payout.

Core 2 Duo???

[Ecuador]

Wait, he didn't have the trademark for "pebble" but he had for "Core 2 Duo"??? Or is Intel selling off assets for a penny nowadays?

Should happen more

[felixrising]

When you look at the rate of small business buyouts that end up being trashed under the new larger ownership, it boggles the mind that these big companies don't just spin out the smaller company again rather than basically drain the customers and close down the old name and products. Seems kind of dumb, and really would be great to see stories like this happen much more often.

Re:Should happen more

[careysub]

Sucking all the juice out of the acquisition and leaving it an empty husk is the objective of the acquisition.

Core 2 Duo? Seriously?

[guesstral]

I used to strap a 486 DX2/66 to my wrist, but by the time it could tell me it was lunchtime, dinner was being served.