I've been continually impressed with Pebble since their very first Kickstarter. They've done a lot on a few levels:<p>- For smartwatches (and possibly even wearables) they produced and shipped what I'd consider to be the first mainstream phone-connected wearable. I'm sure it was on the big players' radar but Pebble produced a decent product relatively on time and I'm sure people learned quite a bit from them. At the least they showed their was a market.<p>- For crowdfunding: Pebble got a MASSIVE stack of money. Way beyond what anyone expected. They managed the sudden increase in scale well, and I think showed that startups could be funded to the tune of $millions rather than $tens-of-thousands.<p>- For hardware startups: Pebble showed that an independent startup can compete (and continue to compete) with giants who have a vast existing customer base. And that funding is available for that endeavour. I also think they set the standard for communicating with customers. I still remember their updates from factories in China. I think they blazed something of a trail for companies that followed (Amp, Navdy, Ouya, off the top of my head).<p>Smartwatches aren't for me - I've lost every watch I've ever owned - but I'm in awe of this team.
So, Pebble calls it "Smartstrap", but the TC article for some reason uses the names "Smartband" <i>and</i> "Smartstrap".<p>The Kickstarter page doesn't mention it by either, but the Pebble blog post (<a href="http://developer.getpebble.com/blog" rel="nofollow">http://developer.getpebble.com/blog</a>) that the TC article references still links back to the Kickstarter page as a source. The blog post shows an image of connectors, but doesn't specify what the four lines do (I'm guessing two are for power and two are for data).<p>So confused right now.
I like the idea of smart watches, but I don't see why there would be a demand for them. Specifically, I can't think of a single "killer app" that would make a smart watch better than the phone that everyone is currently carrying around.<p>Can someone enlighten me? Whats going to be the killer app for smart watches?
Pebble is unique in this early smartwatch space because they just became a hardware platform in addition to being a software platform. If the smartbands are easy enough to change and provide a significant variety of meaningful functionality it might be the advantage that wins out over the other two major platforms.
I think I prefer the regular Pebble Time. It already includes a stainless steel bezel, although the rest of the case is plastic. I'd use a custom strap no matter which watch I got. And 7 days is a long enough battery life for me -- I'd rather have the thinner watch than the longer battery life.
It may not be successful, but I really think Pebble has the right idea with smartwatches.<p>I really hope that the smartwatch industry doesn't devolve into the monoculture that is the smartphone industry (well, technically a 2 platform culture, but Android and iOS are basically 2 sides of the same coin now. Neither one offers anything the other doesn't).
I don't want to wait an extra 2 months, so I think I'll stick with the regular Time and hand it down to my wife when the Steel is in stock, retail. She doesn't want the Steel version anyway and would be happy with an upgrade to her Pebble.<p>The smartstraps are going to be really cool -- a lot of potential there.
Very smart of them to release a gold version. If watches are all about fashion, and people want a gold-colored watch because they like how it looks, they probably can't afford it from Apple.<p>It may be seen as a copy by some, but a $5000 product is not competing with a $300 one.
Revealing it this way leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At the very least, I'm glad that they revealed it during the main campaign rather than shortly after, but it's a pretty significant shift in the campaign. It's like an even bigger "fuck you" to the Kickstarter model, because clearly they knew they'd be doing this.<p>Plus, it resulted in a big shuffling around of orders, which means a bunch of people were able to "cut in line" and get the extra discounted Early Bird level.<p>Though all of that is only in regards to the Steel model, I'm actually extremely interested in the Smartstrap system, and I'll definitely be interested in tinkering around with it once I receive my only slightly discounted non-steel Pebble Time.
I get that Pebble is trying to milk this (marketing-wise) for all it's worth but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth... Should I also expect that next week they will announce the "Pebble Time Steel +" ??<p>Now I have to decide if I want to pay $70 more and wait 2 more months (best case).... If you thought Pebble was abusing KS before....