Pebble has officially reached new heights via Kickstarter – the popular online crowd-funding service – managing to rake in 5.6 million dollars worth of consumer investment over the $500,000 USD it had initially set as a goal.
Pebble’s newest timepiece, rather plainly named Pebble Time, was released as an investment campaign over Kickstarter early yesterday. Within a matter of hours, the company had reached over 11 times worth it’s investment goal, with 27,000 backers pledging their funds to see the the firm’s newest smartwatch brought into the consumer world.
Pebble is a veteran company of the Kickstarter scene, with its first timepiece seated at second place on the site’s Most Funded list. The support of consumers in backing Pebble Time is largely due to the massive fan base Pebble has managed to accumulate over it’s various crowd-funding campaigns.
Pebble Time is the company’s first foray into a colour E-ink display, which will be accompanied by an impressive week’s worth of battery life on one charge. Pebble Time will also incorporate a microphone to enable users to respond to notifications by voice, or to take dictated notes.
With a Gorilla Glass screen and steel bezels, the Pebble Time looks to be the company’s most impressive smartwatch yet, considering that the newest model will also be compatible with all pre-existing Pebble apps. Pebble Time will also be compatible with Android 4.0 upwards, and iOS devices running iOS 8.0.
Pebble Time will also debut Pebble’s new Timeline functionality, which allows users to mark specific events in the same vein as a calendar diary, with smart notifications keeping one informed of weather, traffic and upcoming meetings. Pebble has confirmed that Timeline will eventually be ported to earlier Pebble models, such as the original Pebble smartwatch, and the Pebble Steel.
Pebble Time is currently a contender to take top place on Kickstarter’s Most Funded list by the time of launch. Pebble expects to release the smartwatch in May.
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