Canadian developer behind web sensation Pebble watch almost ready for next step
Posted May 8, 2012 2:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – The Canadian developer behind the Pebble e-paper watch has decided it’s almost time to stop taking orders.
The Pebble, which was launched on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, is a digital wristwatch that wirelessly connects to the smartphone in your pocket — either an iPhone or Android device — and displays Caller ID information for incoming calls, emails, Facebook and Twitter messages, or calendar and weather alerts.
It can also run other apps, like RunKeeper for tracking workouts.
Vancouver-born Eric Migicovsky originally sought $100,000 in pledges to help get the watch into production. It took just 28 hours to hit $1 million and the money never stopped pouring in.
As of Tuesday afternoon, orders for about 75,000 watches had been placed, for a total of more than $9.25 million raised.
Migicovsky says he’ll take orders for another 10,000 units before closing down sales and focusing solely on production.
The Pebble campaign is far and away the most successful of the more than 50,000 campaigns posted to Kickstarter.
Migicovsky had previously hinted that a new feature would be announced if sales hit a secret milestone and on Tuesday he revealed the surprise.
The Pebble watch will now ship with hardware supporting the newer Bluetooth 4.0 wireless standard, which Migicovsky says makes the devices better future-proofed.
