You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The Pebble smartwatch is on a kick, and it’s been a raging success so far. The company initially raised over $10 million on Kickstarter and have since been the talk of the town. Most recently, Pebble revealed that they have sold 275,000 smartwatches so far, and they’re having trouble keeping up with demand, as some Kickstarter backers still don’t have their own units in yet.
However, the company is slowly catching up. They’ve shipped over 93,000 Pebble smartwatches since January, and they said that any remaining Kickstarter backers that haven’t received their watches yet will receive them in the next week or so, except for Germany, where Pebble is citing customs problems for the delay in shipments.
Furthermore, one million Pebble apps have been downloaded from Pebble and its developers, which is quite the milestone for the company, and they only expect for that number to grow exponentially once more apps become available and more Pebble watches start to ship out to customers.
Pebble says that their focus “is now shifting to supporting third-party developers,” and the company says that there has been an “active community around the Pebble SDK.” Pebble is also promising to expand its API for a “deeper” and better user experience and improve the communication between the smartwatch and smartphone.
Pebble is also bringing Gmail and IMAP notification support to the smartwatch, which put a smile on almost everyone’s face, seeing as how Gmail has a huge user base. The support will show up in an upcoming update for the Pebble iOS app. In the long run, we should be seeing a lot of third party content with support for Pebble, so late-comers to the Pebble game won’t have anything to worry about except for an even better experience.
SOURCE: Kickstarter
Pebble smartwatch reaches 275k sold, 1m app downloads is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Smartwatch startup Pebble revealed today for the first time that it has received 190,000 pre-orders for its wearable computing accessory through its own web store following the tremendously successful Kickstarter campaign it ran last year. That means it amassed around 275,000 pre-orders total for the smartwatch, which is impressive early traction for a device that didn’t have a proven market in place to sell into.
Pebble co-founder Eric Migicovsky told me the company wanted to reveal the total order volume now as a follow-up to its Best Buy availability announcement, in order to provide some context around the challenges the startup has faced in terms of shipping product to backers. Response at Best buy has also been very good, Migicovsky says, though the team isn’t yet ready to talk about specific numbers. The Pebble is sold out at many of Best Buy’s retail locations already.
For the first six to ten months following the close of the Kickstarter campaign, the focus for Pebble was exclusively on shipping; it wasn’t a priority, per Migicovsky, but “the” priority. Now, the startup is getting to a point where it can change its focus to start working towards accomplishing its longer term goals as a company. Part of that includes meeting demand and making sure everyone who pre-ordered receives their device, which should happen over the next year, Migicovsky says. But developers are the other big priority to whom Pebble is now turning its attention.
“Our focus as a company is now shifting to supporting third-party developers,” Migicovsky says. The company has seen over 1 million watch apps downloaded to Pebble devices, as measured by installs made through its iOS and Android apps. There’s already an active community around the Pebble SDK, and Migicovsky says that fostering that will be where the startup shifts spending and development efforts.
“This means our developer tools will get better, we’ll be focusing on how developers can get their tools out to users,” he said. “It’s in our best interest, as well as in the interest of developers to share this these stories.”
So now that Pebble has made good on getting to market, it will focus on these two goals to help build the smartwatch into a lasting, robust platform. Of course, those 275,000 pre-orders, while impressive on their own, might not look so amazing should Apple release an iWatch as it appears to be preparing to do. But that’s still an unknown quantity, and Pebble doing their best to solidify their current market positioning is the best thing the startup can do right now.
Migicovsky will also be doing an AMA on Reddit starting at 12 PM PDT, so that should be an opportunity for him to expound further on what the future holds for his startup.
To say that Pebble’s Kickstarter-launched smartwatch has been more popular than it expected would be a slight understatement. In fact, the company touched base with us today to let us know exactly how much demand there’s been for the wearable, how it’s going to fulfill that demand and what it’s doing to help developers. For a small startup, Pebble’s taken a huge amount of orders for its $150 device. Along with the initial 85,000 Kickstarter pledges, the company told us today that it’s had over 190,000 pre-orders to date. On top of that, over a million Pebble “watchapps” have been downloaded from Pebble and its developers. Naturally, all that success has created some issues — to see what the company’s planning on doing about it, head after the break.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Pebble (blog)
Yes, last night’s rumors were true. Pebble just announced that it’s sealed an exclusive retail deal to sell its iconic smartwatch at Best Buy locations nationwide. The wearable device is available online right now (source link below) and will land in stores starting July 7th for $150. Color choices include Jet Black today followed by Cherry Red in August. Pebble will continue taking pre-orders for the other colors (orange, grey and white) directly on its own website. The partnership with Best Buy also brings new retail packaging (above) to store shelves. We’ve sure come a long way since Pebble launched its Kickstarter campaign — one of the most successful ever — back in April 2012. Check out the promo video and full PR after the break.
Update: For folks who ordered a white Pebble straight from the source, good news: the alabaster models are now shipping!
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: Best Buy
As rumored yesterday, Pebble smartwatches are indeed coming to Best Buy. The Kickstarter-funded smartwatch has not hit the online retail sector on Best Buy’s website for $149, which is a bit more than what you could’ve gotten one for if you backed the Kickstarter project, which were selling for $99 a piece at the time.
However, it doesn’t seem the smartwatch is going on sale just yet. Best Buy lists the Pebble on their website, but with a “coming soon” next to it. Furthermore, calling Best Buy to confirm in-store availability was also a mystery. The Pebble will be available in stores, but just as the website says, they’re not selling them on the shelves just yet.
We also weren’t told an exact release date for the Pebble either, so it merely just seems that Best Buy has announced that they’ll be offering the Pebble smartwatch, but it’s not quite known when exactly we’ll get to buy one from the retailer. So far, they’re showing only red as a color option, but hopefully we’ll be treated with more colors as soon as it’s officially on shelves.
The Pebble smartwatch can be credited with the recent boom in the popularity of the accessory. It raised over $10 million on Kickstarter, becoming one of the most successful Kickstarter projects of all time. Smartwatches have been around for a few years now, but bigger companies have been rumored to be joining in on the fun with their own smartwatch creations.
UPDATE: According to 9to5Mac, they’ve received confirmation that Pebble will be available in Best Buy stores starting on July 7, with online availability starting later today.
VIA: Mark Gurman
SOURCE: Best Buy
Pebble Best Buy sales begin as smartwatch hits retail [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
According to information obtained by 9To5Mac, Best Buy may begin selling the Pebble smartwatch as early as this Sunday. The outlet’s sources claim management briefed them that their stores would start selling the watches, and one supplied the above image. This picture of Best Buy’s internal inventory system clearly shows an in stock date of July 7th, or, this Sunday, when the firm’s weekly circular goes out and its new sales start. If this news is correct, it would mark Best Buy as the first — and at this time, only — brick-and-mortar retailer of the “appcessory.” Also gleaned from the submitted photo is news that the smartwatch won’t be eligible for home delivery, but we can’t imagine not being able to order online and then pick-up in-store. We’ve contacted Best Buy for more info and will update if we hear back.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: 9To5Mac
Pebble, the smartwatch that arguably started it all, will be sold in Best Buy stores starting this upcoming Sunday, July 7, according to a leaked internal document. The information was provided by two Best Buy store employees who claim the product is already included in the store’s inventory system, with the inventory sheet showing it
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