Pebble is laying off 40 employees and refocusing its efforts towards heath and fitness

It appears Pebble hasn't been doing all that great lately, as evident by the company's latest batch of lay-offs. CEO Eric Migicovsky announced that he is letting go a total of 40 employees, which might not sound like much, but actually constitutes 25% of the Pebble workforce.

The fact is that despite its popularity, Pebble is still little more than a start-up company and still relatively small. Eric Migicovsky admits that this development is very much necessitated by financial hurdles, which is surprising, considering the popularity of Pebble products. Sadly, there is a lot more to running and sustaining a successful business. Migicovsky also adds that he was able to raise some money from investors recently, but apparently not enough to prevent the drastic measure.

While slightly surprising, this development is quite natural. As in every emerging market niche, which pretty much categorized the smartwatch industry in 2012 when Pebble got its first break things evolve quickly. What this means is the relatively tiny Pebble now has to compete with giants such as Apple, LG and Microsoft for a market that doesn't seem to be expanding as rapidly as participants hoped. And it is no wonder the little guy is taking a few punches.

However, Pebble isn't giving up quite yet. Eric Migicovsky has announced that the company will refocus its efforts towards health and fitness, which aren't really a major accent in the current device lineup. Hopefully, Pebble will have more success in the new niche, as it does have a rather unique approach to the wearable concept that would be a shame to go to waste.