Pebble has sold over 1 million smart watches, teases completely new platform and products for 2015

[Jos]

Competition is about to get a lot fiercer in the smart watch market with Apple’s long awaited entrance in April, but in the meantime Pebble has been doing just fine against its Android Wear counterparts. According to CEO Eric Migicovsky, the company shipped their one millionth unit by the end of 2014. That’s up from 400,000 reported in March, with demand picking up even more after some price cuts and new feature additions in the latter part of the year.

Pebble essentially renewed public interest in smart watches after its successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 brought in $10.2 million -- they were asking for $100,000. Since then several big-name smartphone manufacturers have attempted to get in on the game with their own Android or Tizen based creations, including Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony, and Asus.

There are no solid sales figures for Android smart watches in general but Samsung allegedly shipped 800,000 of its Galaxy Gear devices to retailers back in 2013. With the Apple Watch just around the corner and Google iterating on Android Wear, Pebble knows it needs to bring in something new to compete.

A new framework and interaction model where apps won’t be the main focus.

According to The Verge, that includes a new software platform “that is unlike anything else used on smart watches to date” as well as new hardware.

Migicovsky didn’t elaborate further on their plans for 2015 besides teasing that their upcoming platform doesn’t look anything like what they have today or like what's on your smartphone. Instead, it’ll be based on a new framework and interaction model where apps apparently won’t be the main focus.

Some of LG’s former webOS TV design team was reportedly tasked with building the new software platform so you might find some hints as to what to expect there -- or not, we can only speculate at this point.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59606-pebble-has-sold-over-1-million-smart-watches.html

 

[Wendig0]

I love the pebble steel's look, and nearly bought it around Christmas, but I had a feeling that they would be coming out with something new soon. I'm glad to see that I was right. I hope whatever they come up with is as attractive.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yeah, the smartwear fad, that's all it is, a needless, overhyped and overpriced fad. I'm quite happy to "watch" others throw their money at it, I'd rather keep mine or spend it on something worthwhile.

 

[Wendig0]

Yeah, the smartwear fad, that's all it is, a needless, overhyped and overpriced fad. I'm quite happy to "watch" others throw their money at it, I'd rather keep mine or spend it on something worthwhile.

Everyone has their own idea as to what is worthwhile, and what would make their lives easier. Sure, people buy some extravagant items that are relatively useless, but "smartwear" can be very useful to many people. I'd much rather spend a couple hundred dollars on a smartwatch that has a lot of features I can utilize, than $10,000+ on a Rolex that's only purpose other than to tell time is to be seen as a status symbol.

I still don't see why people say ~$200 is "overpriced" for a nice looking watch, but perhaps that's just me.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Everyone has their own idea as to what is worthwhile, and what would make their lives easier. Sure, people buy some extravagant items that are relatively useless, but "smartwear" can be very useful to many people. I'd much rather spend a couple hundred dollars on a smartwatch that has a lot of features I can utilize, than $10,000+ on a Rolex that's only purpose other than to tell time is to be seen as a status symbol.

I still don't see why people say ~$200 is "overpriced" for a nice looking watch, but perhaps that's just me.

It's the general consensus that $200+ is too much for what they offer and I agree. In it's defense smartwear is still a new technology, if it takes off it'll mature, prices will drop and it'll offer far more functionality than now, making more sense investing in.
I couldn't agree more that spending $10 000+ on a Rolex that only tells you the time is galling and nothing more than facetious bragging & flashing but we only see it that way because most of us can't afford luxuries like that, that watch will keep it's value for years to come and even appreciate in value, how much do you think you can resell your $300 smartwatch for in a years time when it's considered obsolete and you're busy drooling all over the latest releases? Peanuts! Buying into tech is a mugs game for the consumer, you can never come out on top and you're not supposed to because that will put the big tech companies out of business.