Image via <a href="https://twitter.com/mgbnet/status/605505402885672960/photo/1">Martin B. on Twitter</a>
[Update: Pebble says its app for Pebble Time users has been approved and should hit the App Store in 2-3 hours if you can’t see it yet.]
Despite its official release at the end of May, Pebble’s new Pebble Time watch is not yet fully functional for iPhone users, as its required iOS synchronization app is not yet available in the App Store. The Pebble Time Watch application allows users to set up the Pebble Time wearable, install new applications, watch faces, and software updates, but backers who have received the hardware have taken to social media to complain that there’s no iPhone app to use with it. Android users are unaffected as their version of the app is available on Google Play.
Pebble has used its Kickstarter page to pin the delay on Apple’s App Store review process…
Early backers have taken to Twitter to voice their complaints about being unable to use their Pebble Times with their iPhones:
Pebble Time is here!!! Too bad there isn't an app for the iPhone yet. Kind of sucks. @Pebble
— Douglas Gimple (@dgimple) June 2, 2015
I have my Pebble Time, but no iPhone app for it. Thanks Apple!
— Jim Williams (@jimhwilliams) June 2, 2015
Addressing the delayed release of the Pebble Time app, Pebble says that Apple has been dragging its feet on a requested “expedited” review of the app. Based on a screenshot of application submissions, Pebble indicates that it originally submitted the Time app on May 11th, and that initial release was approved for release a week later, on May 18th. The first shipments of the Time watches arrived on May 27th.
However, ahead of the May 27th release, Pebble held back the Time app from being released in the App Store, re-submitting a new version with “minor bug fixes” on May 22nd — 5 days before the planned hardware release. When the hardware launch date arrived, the new application was still listed as “In Review” and unavailable for customers to install. Pebble says that due to “quirks in the App Store submission process and rules,” it could not revert to the buggy but already approved version.
Pebble calls the delay in the app’s release an “obstruction” by Apple and asks Pebble customers to voice their concerns to Apple using the #FreeOurPebbleTime tag on Twitter and Facebook. A user on the Kickstarter page sums up the situation by calling the Time a “paper weight” without the compatible iPhone app. With the app unavailable, Pebble recommends that Time hardware users “borrow an Android device from friends or family to perform initial setup, add cool watchfaces, or install standalone apps that don’t require a paired smartphone.”
While it would be helpful for developers if Apple offered a process that could allow Pebble, for example, to re-push the previously approved Pebble Time app to the App Store, Apple does not appear to be entirely at fault. According to crowdsourced app data website App Review Times, the current average iOS app review time is 10 days. Pebble submitted the updated app only 5 days before the Pebble Time hardware release, risking an issue like this.
However, Pebble’s discussion of this situation notes that a bug fix update to its standard Pebble app for iOS has been in review for 43 days (as of today), so perhaps there is a larger issue between the Apple Watch maker and Pebble behind the scenes. For its part, Apple has publicly indicated no fault with Pebble, previously stating that “apps won’t be denied on the grounds that they work with Pebble.” We’ve reached out to both Apple and Pebble for comment on this new situation.
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Someone in Cupertino is smiling… “Well, if we can’t have a successful smartwatch launch, no one should, right?”
Heh, I lol’d. Seriously though it’s kind of lame they can’t just say to Apple release the approved buggy version of the app just so people can get it working, but IMHO it’s even lamer that there is no windows / OS X / Linux or web version of the App that people can use…I don’t know much about the pebble time but to only offer android and iOS apps seems kind of short sighted…
Yea I agree, I mean I always carry my Windows PC in my back pocket!
iOS and Android are the two main mobile platforms. Android wear syncs with Android. Apple watch with iOS. Pebble with both. Pebble Time? In theory, with both.
In what way was the Watch launch unsuccessful? I’m genuinely confused by your comment. By almost all accounts, they sold in quantities that surpass any other smartwatch platform.
In every way. Apple doesnt consider selling to 1M die hard Apple fans and zero regular consumers as good news.
@chrisl84 it’s not working…
Of course the WATCH launch has produced successful numbers and revenue, however undisclosed they currently are, but there’s no question the launch was botched by unnecessarily long backorders and the preorders before try-ons. With many people still waiting for their preorders, Apple is set to have it in stores as early as next week, and that could ruffle even more feathers.
@beyondthetech @chrisl84 There’s a big difference between unsuccessful and constrained, and in a few weeks availability will be much greater. Unsuccessful would be too much stock sitting on shelves. Constrained is a problem only in that it means they aren’t selling as many as they could.
So Pebble submits an app well ahead of it’s release date and then holds it back, submitting the updated version just days before it needs to go live, and thats Apple’s fault.
I know it is easy to cry “Apple is intentionally holding us back” on the internet, but chances are, they are not, and there is no malicious intent.
Before release, Pebble made the admirable choice to take down buggy software and reseed a fixed version.
Having been in QA before, once there is that “wait, they didn’t find the bugs initially, and we didn’t our first pass, might want to be a bit more thorough this time” thought, it’s just human nature.
Like most things, you may not realize you are doing something until it is pointed out.
Also, as much as the pebble time seems like a nice watch, I don’t think Apple is shaking in it’s boots over it…
http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000031855/4746_orh350w620/Apple-Watch-vs-Pebble-Time.jpg
Absolutely. And if the average review time is 10 days, then we’re just on the edge of that.
And average means roughfly half of the time it is going to take longer than that.
Looks like something you buy in the toy aisle at Target. Sorry.
One thing that is cool about the pebble though is the ability to create your own custom watch faces…I really can’t understand why the pebble and pretty much every other smartwatch in existence launched with this no brainer feature and the Apple Watch did not…
Because Apple wants the world to know that it’s device is beautiful, and runs well… BEFORE it lets people make it ugly and slow… not have to wrestle against that inevitable perception when people design their own poorly-coded battery intensive and butt ugly faces which make fart sounds on the hour..
Also Apple sells many more watches than anyone else. It doesn’t want to deal with the copyright issues when the “face store” is jammed full of ripped off Rolex faces.
^^^^^THIS.
I want an “Watch Face Store” that’s very clean, and not full with copies of copies of rip-offs of other copies.
I want watch faces that are designed by designers, and not “fake rolex”
I want those watch faces to follow QA standards on battery usage and be able to put my complications on them…
The Pebble store has been up since 2013. Android Wear has been up a year. If Pebble/Android Wear watch stores where full of Rolex/Bretiling ripoffs then you would be hearing of lawsuits left right and centre. But you don’t, because they aren’t. It’s a tired excuse.
Apple make money from everything – why would they allow their customers the flexibility of making their own completely unique watchface for free, when they can make money from those same customers instead by charging for watchfaces instead.
I would make my own faces and / or adapt other designs for existing smart watches…as for copyrights, that’s not a valid reason, and it’s been played out IMHO as a pretty poor excuse — the app store is already heavily restricted, and if there is a copyright \ license issue, the app gets removed…we’ve seen this countless times — the VLC iOS app is a pretty well known example…so it would be no different than how it already is. Add in the fact that I mentioned already, that every other smart watch in existence allows for custom faces, and we have not heard of one copyright claim yet. That is millions of devices already out there, not including the AW that people have been using for years…I think people are seeing a problem here that has no basis in reality.
As far as making your own copyrighted faces and putting them on the watch yourself, that’s not something Apple can or even should have any control over…If I buy an iPhone and use copyrighted images for the lock and home screen — that’s not Apple’s fault, it’s mine. In the end, that’s not a good reason for them to not let *anyone* choose what images they want for their home and lock screens.
Also in terms of battery life, the Apple Watch has surpassed all expectations IMHO; the battery life of it is downright phenomenal. With all the built-in controls they have to save battery already there, I can’t see how a custom watch face, no matter how ridiculously gaudy, would make any noticeable difference at the end of the day.
Yea the Green one especially, the red one looks kinda cool
Who submits their software 5 days ahead of a product release? That’s just stupid. Apple is not perfect, but they are not at fault here. Pebble… This was dumb on your part.
Not just dumb on their part but when they are reliant on another company you have to abide by their rules. They can blame Apple all they want but at the end of the day it is Apple’s ecosystem.
I’ve been an iOS developer for more than five years, and this seems like a non-issue to me. Apple regularly takes more than the 5 whole days Pebble is expecting to approve an app or update. If you can get an “expedited” review from someone at Apple, that’s great — we had that once or twice. But it’s a privilege, not a right, and when the developer explicitly rejected the app that was approved, and then is complaining about the re-submission .. it seems a bit early for a Twitter rage campaign, at the least.
I dont understand, what reason could Apple have to delay Pebble Time? Its not as if Pebble was the first ever smart watch. I think we should hold off on the Hastag #FreeOurPebbleTime Until we know “being in review for 43 days” is normal Apple Standard.
If you read carefully you can see that Apple approved the app and set it for release at the developer’s discretion, Pebble did a self rejection because of bugs and then resubmitted the app four days later, and resubmitted it with bug fixes and changes. This requires a re-review. It’s been in review for 10 days as of today.
I can imagine Tim Cook laughing as we speak.
I can imagine him not caring.
He is more like… oh Pebble? What is that again?
One of the reasons I switched to Android.
You can predict the future?
“I’m switching to Android because I had a vision that in 2015 Pebble will ship a 2nd gen smart watch and Apple will delay its app so I can’t use it on day one”
It makes a lot of sense to switch to another product because the first one has a careful curation and test process as opposed to letting anyone deploy anything?
Well… with that logic I am sure glad you switched.
I blame Pebble for rejecting the initially approved app and submitting a new version expecting expedited approval.
would you have preferred a buggy app now, or a working app in a few days?
Change the release notes to mention the bug and say a known fix is on the way. Don’t reject the approved app, stupid. Unless it’s a serious bug that could brick Pebble firmware. Then it’s worse pulling the app. But that’s their own fault then.
Or don’t push your bug testing / fixing so close to the launch of the device?
I know it’s tough to meet deadlines with software and even tougher to catch most of the bugs, but that’s on Pebble not Apple.
“However, ahead of the May 27th release, Pebble held back the Time app from being released in the App Store, re-submitting a new version with “minor bug fixes” on May 22nd — 5 days before the planned hardware release.”
Why would they pull the app 5 days before release?
They do know how App Review works, right? If they were really “minor bug fixes” they should have let the initial version get released and the bug fix version would go live as soon as it got through review.
It sounds to me like poor planning on their part, which they’re trying to pin on Apple not giving them special treatment.
Use logic Pebble. You didn’t interest me and now, because of this, I don’t like you. Good job.
No one cares.
wait, you mean pebble wasn’t given an “expedited” re-review before a holiday weekend and the WWDC?
I’ve had to wait over a week to release a fix for problems that affected my customers because Apple wouldn’t expedite it, it can’t be assumed that a fix will be rushed through.
However I’m surprised that no other commenters have jumped on the report of the Pebble app thats been in submission for 43 days? If true that would be a pretty poor show on Apple’s part.
Actually, if I read this table correctly, it was first submitted on May 4th. The were “Preparing for Submission” for 43 days.
The issue is that Pebble pulled the (approved) app to submit a new version with bug fixes on May 22nd:
“However, ahead of the May 27th release, Pebble held back the Time app from being released in the App Store, re-submitting a new version with “minor bug fixes” on May 22nd — 5 days before the planned hardware release.”
I understand. My comment was for those “concerned” about the 43 days. The way I read that is in January pebble registered the app, but didn’t submit until May 4th
The app went through review successfully, but was set to not be released by Pebble since the watch wasn’t out yet.
After that, Pebble pulled the app because they found more bugs, and re-submitted it on May 22nd:
“However, ahead of the May 27th release, Pebble held back the Time app from being released in the App Store, re-submitting a new version with “minor bug fixes” on May 22nd — 5 days before the planned hardware release.”
There are two iOS apps by Pebble Technology Corp. One is the existing app that works for the Pebble and Pebble Steel. An update for this app apparently has been in review since April 22nd. The other app is the one for the new Pebble Time. That’s the one needed to activate a Pebble Time for iOS and the latest version is in review since May 23 with no older version available in the iOS App Store.
Everyone that produced iOS apps knows the review cycle.
Will they next blame Apple for a mediocre watch design?
Can’t they host it on their own site while Apple reviews it?
I am dancing if one of my apps gets approved in 5 days. The current average review time is 10-14 days. That being said, I do think that Apple could do something to streamline the app review process for long standing app developers that have built up some trust by both Apple and their users.
While that “preferred status” may work for some, it could, especially at times of new iOS releases, cause smaller developers to be negatively affected.
Pebble’s new strategy: Blame all of your problems on Apple.
Let’s see how long they manage to stay in business.
For me it feels like a lemonade stand on the side of the road the moment the started a second kickstarter for their second product. It feels like they didn’t believe enough on their future success to invest their own money and shared the risk.
I understand a kickstarter for an innovative idea but I dont get it for companies that are already established.
Hopefully this won’t hurt resale. I was able to double my money by selling the original Pebble from Kickstarter. Don’t think I’ll get enough selling the Pebble Time (whenever it shows up) to buy an Apple Watch but it’ll still be a darn good ROI.
Did anyone hear the whiner wagon… it when whine! whine! its their fault.
Come on… a company that needs a second kickstarter to launch a new product when they are already established and incorporated and funded deserves no respect.
Apple is very famous on long review process, so this time length is quite normal (I mean 10 days is normal, but with WWDC around the corner they surely are busy right now). Pebble, your press is quite misleading not a single word blaming to yourself ? really ? Here is some untold story of Pebble https://medium.com/@sarunw/ugly-truth-of-pebble-freeourpebbletime-campaign-f04dc5cadefa