Update: Less than 30 minutes after launching its Kickstarter campaign, the Pebble Time is fully funded.
Pebble has this morning announced the next generation of its smartwatch, called Pebble Time. The device, as we reported last week, sports a color e-paper display, a thinner design, a microphone on board, and a completely revamped ‘timeline’ interface. Pebble Time is launching on Kickstarter with early bird pricing tiers at $159 and $179, but the device will retail for $199.
One of the biggest selling points for this device over the Apple Watch is its battery life, which Pebble says lasts the same 7 days on a charge. Apple’s Watch goes on sale in a month or two at a starting price of $349 and going up from there, so the question is whether or not Pebble can carve out a niche in the lower price range with those who are after more basic functionality but prefer longer battery life. One week vs. one day is a big difference.
There is also the question of deliveries. Pebble’s first launch was plagued with delays and if the small company can’t get meaningful numbers of these out by summertime, it will likely be swirled in the tidal wave of the Apple Watch.
The Pebble Time has water resistance, comes in three colors via Kickstarter, includes a special engraving for backers who backed the original Pebble, and the company says that all 6,500+ of the existing apps available for the device will work flawlessly with the Pebble Time.
9 minutes in and halfway to goal?! Pebblers, you rock our socks so hard. #PebbleTime! http://t.co/egaUyWj7gZ pic.twitter.com/jHRCs8gf73
— Pebble (@Pebble) February 24, 2015
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Who wants a color screen that looks like it came from 1990’s
I do
Knock yourself out.
for e-Ink it’s very impressive – and the gfx look pretty cool
I personally think it’s a great trade off. A week of battery life, an *always on display*, and perfect visibility in direct sunlight. It seems to have a pretty high refresh rate too. This is the route I felt that Apple should’ve taken, but I’m sure they were more focused on a vivid display.
Apparently just over 12,000 people so far……..
People who want the battery to last more than a few hours ! It’s a trade off between beautiful full color screens and long battery life. A watch needs to last on one charge for a few days to be of anything other than wrist bling.
I’m bummed that it’s nolonger waterproof. A microphone is nice, but dang.
You missed something bud… “We used the latest technology to maintain water resistance so you can swim or surf with Pebble Time (we do not, however, recommend talking underwater)”
Huh, I did miss that. I heard where they refered to it as ‘water resistant’. I’m super impressed now. No more complaints from this guy.
I’m hoping the Apple watch is at least as water resistant as my current Pebble. I’m really considering getting both the new Pebble and the Apple watch when it comes out.
Remember me my old watches, when I was in my youth, in plastic… But we need concurrence in this world. This watch will certainly be liked by some people! :)
Why do they need kickstarter support for each release?
They’re a small company. They have several routes they could go. They could go with venture capital, which makes them beholden to investors. They could try and muster a launch without additional funding, but that requires enough money to ramp up production, which they may not have banked yet. Of course, they can also choose to go the route that they are going: gain support from the community that will use the product.
The benefit of doing it this way is that they get to gauge the demand, raise enough funds to ramp up production without incurring debt to do so, give people a sense of involvement in the process of bringing the item to market, and provide fun perks for people who are interested in supporting the watch beyond just a single purchase.
Kickstarter needs Pebble more than the other way around (IIRC it was the highest grossing Kickstarter a few years ago).
I’m sure they got a great rate. Plus kickstarter editions of Pebbles have a certain cachet amongst the gadget crowd.
What Chris said and also let the Verge explain (it has to do with highest margin of return from the pseudo-retailer known as Kickstarter and also WHEN they get the money):
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/24/8104385/pebble-time-watch-kickstarter-fundraising
Used the original for the last 9 months and its brilliant. Looking forward to the new model. Personally, I think Apple have got it wrong this time, too expensive for me I think.The pebble might just be the right price with just the right feature set and a perfect charge cycle. Maybe Pebble should think about creating a phone ( Pebble Smart) with an e-ink colour display and a massive battery life. Just saying.
I’m mixed on this. I have the current Pebble and I love it, but it’s far from perfect, especially on iOS. When iOS 8 came out, it got A LOT better, but it still has a lot of features (I feel) missing, and some lingering issues with random disconnects (That I really hope won’t be an issue with the Apple Watch.) At this point, I’m at a wait and see. While I’d love to feel all special about getting an engraving (I was an original Pebble Kickstarter backer) I don’t think it’s worth the money right now. I’m going to wait until the Apple Watch comes out, go see how I like it, and then compare with the features of the new Pebble. Either way, I’m sticking with my current Pebble for now, it still works fine.
I’ve jumped on the new one simply cause it saves me $40. Like you, i get a mixed bag from the current pebble especially disconnections but overall it is very positive. The new pebble looks a lot better and seems to have more style without ‘all the bells’ which the apple watch is going to have. I find myself being ‘nagged’ enough by the current pebble. If the AW has everything I think people will be spending far too much time staring at their wrist. I read somewhere that the watch should go no further than simply displaying notifications. If you have to interact with it too much it will get annoying very fast. Anyway, heck, I change my iphone every year why not my watch :)
Most of my issues disappeared somewhere between iOS7 and iOS8. The only issue I have left is that Pebble somehow doesn’t respect my DND setting on the phone – and buzzes at the middle of the night for an overseas Skype message (maybe it’s a Skype thing).
Congrats to them for another successful campaign. I hope Pebble is around in 2 years. Maybe they’ll be able to sell 1 million watches in 1 year instead of the 2 years it took to sell their first million. I very much doubt they’ll reach such goals even at $149 each, no chance if they follow through with $199 pricing with Watch on the shelves for $349.
Why does it have two bezels?
I’ve had my pebble for about 6 months now and love it. I really wonder if I would want to trade it in for an Apple Watch considering it already feels like a pain charging this every 5 days, every day is going to be annoying, another charger to pack everywhere you go.
With this price-point and the fact that it does everything I actually want from a smartwatch, I think they could go a long way to competing with the Apple Watch. The difficulty is going to be overcoming assumption, everyone will assume the Apple Watch is what they need.
All this coming from an Apple fanboy, never thought I’d say it, but Apple may have gone wrong here. Not that it matters, they’ll still sell bucketloads.
Yeah, I feel the same way about Apple’s watch. They’ve shoveled a lot of money into it too. Gold versions, special bands, three different models, two different sizes, dedicated displays, safes installed in each store, and talk of dedicated stores? So_much_money. Either they think they have something special, or they’re trying to make it look like they do. It’s just seems to be missing things.. but maybe I’ll be impressed when I get my hands on a display model; I usually am.
Craigs list. When the Apple Watch is out, you can sell your Pebble on craigs list. :)
I was an original “backer.” I’ve lived with a Pebble on a daily basis since I got it… well, actually 3 Pebbles because the first 2 died. The first one lost it’s display and the 2nd one lost its Bluetooth radio. Does a Pebble work? Yes. Does it work like a finished, professional tool? No. Even after 2 years it still feels like a work in progress… a beta product. Am I backing the new watch? No. Apple Watch here I come… and I suspect I’m not alone.
I really like the pebble ! looks great but the apple watch looks better, i really want to be able to ansewer my phone on my wrist specially while driving and also i do prefer to charge my watch everyday and have a great display. the same happend when i change my old sucky screen phone for my first iphone the low battery life for a greater display and device was worth it.
sorry my english
Will counter your anecdote with mine – my original Kickstarter version is still ticking though it’s a bit rough on the edges. It’s been through 2 wash cycles, numerous dunkings and survived being stepped on and kicked.
Agreed on the appearance – not what I’d use to impress a date or customer onsite. But for the most part the only one that cares about my Pebble are me and my techie coworkers.
The new model looks like a great balance between the style-bereft android wear, and seemingly over-glitzy Apple watch (though I do dig the digital crown). 7 days of battery is the best you can get for a smart watch.