Pebble CEO: Over One Million Smartwatches Sold And Counting
We have yet to see if the smartwatch category will truly take off and become the next big thing, though either way, one company that's enjoyed a bit of success up to this point is Pebble. Remember Pebble? The smartwatch maker doesn't garner the same kind of attention that Google does with its Android Wear platform or Apple and its unreleased Apple Watch, but that hasn't stopped the company from selling over 1 million wearables to date.
Pebble chief Eric Migicovsky revealed the million-shipment milestone in an interview with The Verge, adding that it occurred on December 31 of last year. Just eight months prior to that, Pebble was sitting pretty on 400,000 smartphone shipments. According to Migicovsky, price cuts and upgraded features in newer models helped the company to more than double its smartphone shipments by the end of the year.
Looking at 2015, Pebble will launch new models and a brand new software platform that isn't like anything out there currently. Instead of focusing on reproducing the app experience as found on smartphones, Pebble will take a decidedly different approach.
"We've found a new framework to use as an interaction model on the watch," Migicovsky said. "It doesn't look like what we have today, and it doesn't look like what's on your smartphone."
Pebble still plans to have apps on its smartwatches; they just won't be the main focus like they are on other platforms. That's an interesting approach, especially since there already exists 6,000 apps and watchfaces for the current platform, with almost 25,000 developers around the world contributing content.
Pebble chief Eric Migicovsky revealed the million-shipment milestone in an interview with The Verge, adding that it occurred on December 31 of last year. Just eight months prior to that, Pebble was sitting pretty on 400,000 smartphone shipments. According to Migicovsky, price cuts and upgraded features in newer models helped the company to more than double its smartphone shipments by the end of the year.
"We've found a new framework to use as an interaction model on the watch," Migicovsky said. "It doesn't look like what we have today, and it doesn't look like what's on your smartphone."
Pebble still plans to have apps on its smartwatches; they just won't be the main focus like they are on other platforms. That's an interesting approach, especially since there already exists 6,000 apps and watchfaces for the current platform, with almost 25,000 developers around the world contributing content.
