The record-breaking Kickstarter for the new Pebble Time smartwatch gained some momentum off of Apple's "Spring Forward" event last week, reported TechCrunch over the weekend.
The crowd-funding campaign brought in on average $6,000 per hour the Sunday before the big Apple Watch event, a statistic which rose to $10,000 per hour as the event happened on Monday, March 9 and leveled off at $16,000 per hour on March 10.
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Speaking on the matter, Pebble CEO and founder Eric Migicovsky said the Apple Watch event doubled the rate of contribution to the Pebble Time Kickstarter, but as TechCrunch pointed out, it was closer to nearly tripling the campaign's hourly rate.
Apple's entry into the smartwatch market no doubt sparked interest in users interested in a wearable device, but perhaps looking for a cheaper alternative, with the ability to connect with Android phones or have a longer-lasting battery life. That train of thought appears to be unsurprising to Migicovsky and the Pebble team, who expected a boost coming off of the Apple Watch event.
“Apple’s event this week caused a nice spike in support for us, as anticipated,” Migicovsky told TechCrunch. “When the biggest company in the world enters your market, that’s the kind of validation you can only dream of. Ultimately the more awareness for smartwatches, and the more choice for consumers, the better for everyone. 2015 is going to be an extraordinarily exciting year.”
The Pebble Time Kickstarter began on February 24, and reached its goal of $500,000 in just under twenty minutes, allowing the company to introduce a more formal option in the Pebble Time Steel one week later. The campaign currently has about 72,000 backers with just over $18.5 million pledged and eleven days to go until its completion.
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Top Rated Comments
If I divide donations by funders, I get a hair over 250$.
If this is the price, it would seem that this product is overpriced for anything outside the Android market. For someone already possessing a compatable iPhone, why not spend 100$ more and get the refined package and richer feature set of the Watch?
As noted on the Kickstarter page, the Pebble Time retail price will be $199 and the Pebble Time Steel will be $299 (after the campaign). The original Pebble is now $99 and the original Pebble Steel is $199, fwiw.
So, the "top" new Pebble is 50 bucks less than the entry-level aluminum :apple:Watch, but with the Pebble Time Steel you get 10-day battery and cross-platform compatibility. Various blogs have already discussed the pros and cons between the two, and it really just boils down to preference and to which features you give weight. I prefer longer battery and always-on, which all Pebbles have, so I'm keeping my original Pebble Steel and adding a Pebble Time.
Yes its a pretty disgusting abuse of the kickstarter idea in my opinion. They are using it for advertising and to line their pockets.
Its the start of KS demise. It should be for people who need funding - not a company which already (apparently) has the watches close to ready to go and just wants cash early.
If Pebble was launching a totally new product line I could kinda see a KS. But this is simply Version 2.0.