Pebble Announces the Pebble Time
by Brandon Chester on February 24, 2015 2:00 PM EST
The original Pebble watch was arguably the first device in what is now a rapidly growing smartwatch segment of the wearables market. Since its release, the software of the Pebble has steadily improved, and Pebble has introduced various new color options as well as more premium version of the Pebble called the Pebble Steel. But even with all those changes, the fundemental hardware of the Pebble remained the same. Today Pebble has announced a brand new smartwatch called the Pebble Time, and it is what one could call a true successor to the original Pebble.
The Pebble Time retains many of the software features that users enjoy from the original Pebble. It's compatible with every existing Pebble application and watchface, and it has the same battery life of up to seven days. But the hardware of the Pebble Time is significantly improved from the original Pebble. The area that most users will notice first is the new display. While the original Pebble used a black and white memory LCD, the Pebble Time uses a color e-paper display. The design and size of the watch is also improved, with the thickness of the case having been reduced to 9.5mm, which is 20% thinner than the original Pebble. The bottom of the case is also curved to fit more comfortably on the user's wrist.
On the software side of things, the Pebble Time uses a new interface that Pebble are calling Timeline. Essentially, the interface is a sequential list of the events that you have planned throughout the day, and the three buttons on the right side of the watch allow you to move to the past, present, or future of your daily timeline. Like the original Pebble, the Pebble Time works with both Android and iOS devices, but features like sending voice replies to incoming notifications are more limited on iOS.
The Pebble Time will intiially come in black, white, and red. For their initial sales run Pebble has gone back to Kickstarter, the website where they originally began. The Pebble Time will retail for $199 when the Kickstarter campaign is over, but users who want to purchase one now can get it for $179 on Pebble's Kickstarter campaign below.
Source: Pebble Time Kickstarter
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Pablitus - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
Hope they include Windows Phone support!JeffFlanagan - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
IOS and Android. Win Phone support would be a bad investment since Win Phone is a tiny segment of the smart phone market.JeffFlanagan - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
You probably want to look into Microsoft Band / Microsoft Health.http://www.anandtech.com/show/9002/microsoft-band-...
Laxaa - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
I think feels kind of wrong that they turn to Kickstarter again for this product. They raised a lot of capital last year, and surely they could have just sold it through their own website because I don't see what seperates this kickstarter from a regular pre-order.As for the watch itself, it doesn't look that good and I think the screen is too small(it doesn't need the bezel inside the bezel) The rest looks good, though.
xilience - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
I couldn't agree more. I don't understand why they are using kickstarter at all for this. They could have accepted pre-orders themselves and kept 100% of the money. Very strange.Samus - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
They're basically using Kickstarter as a pre-order platform. They claim they are a very small company, but the honest truth is they could get a loan to pre-produce these.The thing is, Kickstarter is probably taking a smaller percentage than it would otherwise be to get a high interest short-term loan for 5 million dollars.
Laxaa - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - link
True. And the Kickistarter will also create a lot more "free buzz" for the product as well. The original Pebble was one of the most successful Kickstarters of all time and this one has almost surpassed it in less than 24 hours. Saying that your company has two of the most successful Kickstarters will probably do wonders for marketing.sonicmerlin - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - link
Jesus they're already at $10 million.xerandin - Wednesday, March 4, 2015 - link
That's the point. Kickstarter is looked on with positivity for the most part, while pre-ordering has gained a bit of infamy due to poorly made video games. Not wholly applicable to a device like this, but not NOT wholly applicable either...At any rate, I believe Kickstarter was the best way to go for them strategically.
Daniel Egger - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
Pebble itself says the old display is also e-paper. Not sure what a "memory LCD" is supposed to be in comparison but I was always under the impression that the main difference between LCD and e-paper is that the LCD needs current to keep the crystals in their state while e-paper only needs current to change state.All other features than the color display and voice recognition are also supposed to come to the older Pebbles via firmware update.