BlackBerry

BlackBerry appears in Eric Migicovsky on Pebble, Kickstarter, and Building for Yourself as the mobile platform that made Eric Migicovsky’s early watch technically practical. The first prototype had worked conceptually with iPhone, but the source says iPhone lacked the needed Bluetooth API while BlackBerry offered accessory support.

The BlackBerry dependency made [[ImpulseWatch|Impulse]] visible and fragile at the same time. Press and bloggers called it the “BlackBerry watch,” creating thousands of signups, but by the time the product shipped many interested customers had switched to iPhone. The case connects platform API access to Consumer Hardware Startup Risk: the platform that enables a device can also narrow its market and expire before production catches up.

Connections

• Eric Migicovsky, Alerta, [[ImpulseWatch|Impulse]], and Pebble - source founder and hardware path.
• Apple and iPhone - platform contrast in the source.
• Customer Pull, Consumer Hardware Startup Risk, and Consumer Electronics Lifecycle - concepts illustrated by the platform shift.