It's an absolutely shame that Pebble was so innovative and functional, but couldn't reach mass market. But, I am extremely excited and happy that the Pebble team can start it again. I don't like Google for many things, but, I am grateful that the open-sourced PebbleOS. What a joyous day!
I think trying to reach "mass market" - or specifically, the market of people who are into fitness and sportsball - is largely what killed them. I'd like to believe that they could've catered to existing userbase a bit longer, grew a little more slowly but sustainably by doubling down on an idea of an ergonomic, battery-efficient, programmable smartwatch extension - a tool, not a toy.
Alas, maybe the whole thing was over once Apple, and Samsung got their marketing wheels spinning.
Totally possible, like Nokia vs the iPhone. Difficult to say for sure though, seeing vendors like Fitbit and Garmin still operate in the same space.
I think openness is vital for such a (new) platform or ecosystem in general. The ecosystem has certainly gotten older by now, especially compared to when Pebble first started, but in my opinion a lot of the organic growth has been stunted. It's too difficult to try new things, find new useful applications and to innovate with all these walled _wearable_ gardens.
I still miss a few things the Pebble had but my Apple Watch doesn't. Which in turn makes it feel less like a tool and more like a gadget.
I have the opposite opinion on what's a tool and what's a toy.
That the OS has been open sourced is great news (though it's sad it was on GitHub... and hopefully other communities around Pebble will spring up outside of platforms (article only mentions Discord and Reddit)).
Even in retrospect it seems weird that it failed the way it did.
Not sure how much use it is?
The Magic of pebble was the UX of the OS and it's extensive hackability. All that magic is OSS now.