Pebble, The Crowdfunded Smartwatch, Passes FCC En Route To Shipping
The Pebble smartwatch is most certainly in the limelight. After raising bookoodles of money on Kickstarter, the crowdfunded smartwatch has garnered the attention of the masses in a major way. And now, after it missed its September ship date, it's in the spotlight for another reason: ruining Christmas for some. All jesting aside, there's no doubt that pundits are feeling a little uneasy after seeing a company grab so much cash and then miss a ship date by months and months, but there's a ton of red tape in developing new hardware, and more specifically, getting that hardware ready for action in the U.S.
That whole "FCC clearance" thing is a chore unto itself, but it looks like the folks behind Pebble have at least cleared that hurdle. A new FCC report shows the smartwatch passing through its database, clearing its frequency tests and passing the requisite tests to get FCC certification in America. Usually when products clear FCC hurdles, it means that a launch on U.S. soil is imminent. This is typically the last major stepping stone before an item is cleared to hit shelves, or in this case, hit the mailboxes of the many, many people that funded this thing.
So, it may not have appeared in time for Santa, but hopefully it'll arrive in early Q1 2013. Better late than never, right?
That whole "FCC clearance" thing is a chore unto itself, but it looks like the folks behind Pebble have at least cleared that hurdle. A new FCC report shows the smartwatch passing through its database, clearing its frequency tests and passing the requisite tests to get FCC certification in America. Usually when products clear FCC hurdles, it means that a launch on U.S. soil is imminent. This is typically the last major stepping stone before an item is cleared to hit shelves, or in this case, hit the mailboxes of the many, many people that funded this thing.
So, it may not have appeared in time for Santa, but hopefully it'll arrive in early Q1 2013. Better late than never, right?
