Pebble Watch, a poster child for the potential of crowdfunding to take a cool concept and turn into a consumer reality, has surpassed 1 million watches sold having topped 400k last year. This report comes on the eve of Apple’s most important product launch in years – the Apple Watch.
Pebble, founded by Eric Migicovsky, killed it on Kickstarter in May of 2012 raising a benchmark amount of $10.2 million. Pebble went on to raise additional VC funding even while rumors consistently percolated around Apple’s pending push into wearable tech.
According to the Verge, Pebble delivered its millionth watch on December 31st – a nice way to start the New Year.
Pebble is reportedly going to shift into high gear and update both hardware and software to something “unlike anything else used in smartwatches to date”.
Migicovsky was quoted on the milestone;
“We’ve found a new framework to use as an interaction model on the watch. It doesn’t look like what we have today, and it doesn’t look like what’s on your smartphone”.
Pebble followed its initial iteration with the Pebble Steel – a devices that has been well received. Competition has been pretty limp so far. Samsung’s initial entry into the SmartWatch realm was a bit of a disaster. They followed up with a newer version sporting Android Wear that was better received. Pebble has continued to establish solid partnerships and cool apps that have solidified it as the leader in the space to date.
In the end the Pebble vs. Apple Watch will start this April. Estimates are already in expecting Apple to ship millions of smartwatches this year. The highly integrated ecosystem of Apple products is a tough one to match – much less beat. Expect a street fight from Pebble on this one.
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!
