Sales of the Pebble smartwatch topped the 400,000 mark back in March 2014. Less than a year later, CEO Eric Migicovsky today told The Verge that the company shipped crossed the one million Pebble shipment mark at the end of 2014. The company plans to build on that success in 2015 with new products and a new software platform that promises to be “unlike anything else used on smartwatches to date.”
Perhaps most impressive about Pebble’s accomplishment is that it has done so with only a few device models. The Pebble Steel unveiled at CES 2014 still relies on an e-ink display and low-power SoC. At the same time, the ecosystem has improved dramatically. Not only are more than 6,000 apps and watchfaces now available but the Pebble OS has improved significantly over the past year. For example, it recently added Android Wear notification compatibility.
Needless to say, Migicovsky revealed little about the new devices or software but he did provide a few hints. “We’ve found a new framework to use as an interaction model on the watch,” he said. “It doesn’t look like what we have today, and it doesn’t look like what’s on your smartphone.” Apps will continue to be part of the new platform but will no longer be the main focus.
It’s likely that the webOS designers Pebble recently hired are involved in this new platform. Could the Pebble operating system pick up a few tricks from webOS in its next major iteration?
Pebble will unveil its new devices and platform later this year but no specific time frame has yet to be provided. With the Apple Watch expected to launch in April and Google and its partners offering a growing range of Android Wear-powered smartwatches, it will be interesting to see what Pebble has up its sleeve to take the fight to the big guys.
Curious about the Pebble Steel? You can read our review here.
Source : The Verge