Pebble Time – Wearable Device Becomes Most Funded Kickstarter Campaign With $20.3M In Pre-Orders
Pebble Time might just have been the most funded project on Kickstarter to date. It finished its run on the crowd funding website with $20.3 million in pre-orders.
This beats the previous record of $13.3 million, which was for a “coolest beer cooler.” Plus, Pebble Time’s most recent Kickstarter campaign record was almost twice the amount that it garnered for its original version in 2012, which was only $10.3 million.
The Pebble Time smartwatch was supported by 78,741 people, with its first batch of orders coming in May. Once it arrives, it will be sporting a coloured e-paper display and a new interface. Plus, it claims to be have a seven-day battery life, as opposed to the one offered by its competitors, which only runs for one to two days, as reported by The Guardian.
With regards to its product, the company added some new features, such as smartstraps. These are basically watch straps that have sensors and related electronics that work with the apps that are on Pebble Time. Plus, Pebble originally put in $1 million to encourage developers to support the fund they had started.
The company’s original device was one of the first mainstream wearable devices in the market when it was launched back in 2012. It reached 1 million shipments in February alone. Pebble had also launched a second smartwatch, the Pebble Time Steel, which, like the first one, are reportedly water-resistant.
Still, despite being one of the earliest released ones, both the Pebble Time and the Pebble Time Steel will be going up against giant competitors in the market. The Android Wear device from Google is now developing into a sought after smartwatch, in addition to the Moto 360 from Motorola, Smartwatch 3 from Sony, Gear 2 from Samsung, G Watch R from LG and ZenWatch from Asus.
More wearable devices will be added into the mix once they are launched in April, such as the Apple Watch from Apple and the Microsoft Band, which is more of a fitness tracker than a timepiece, which becomes available in the United Kingdom in the same month.
