Pebble smartwatch delayed due to popularity
Few Kickstarter projects ship on time, but the problem normally lies with optimism, lack of research into how long something takes, and so on. For the Pebble smartwatch, the problem is rather the opposite, as the project ended up being too popular for its own good. Having racked up over $10 million in pledges, a nice 100 times more than the goal, the project simply reached a whole new scale than what was planned for. The September release date was based on a assumed 1000 unit production run, whereas the current number of units needed means that the factory has to pump out 15,000 units a week for a month and a half to fulfill the Kickstarter pledges alone, before anyone else can even order one.
While that is a bit disappointing for both backers and people waiting for it to release properly (me), I’m not entirely sure that it would have shipped in September in any case. The $10 million that the team now has to work with is sure to make things easier in other aspects of the process, as well as ensure that the final product is everything people want. No new date has been set for the release, but it will probably be a while until non-backers start receiving their watches. There’s always the Meta Watch for those who don’t want to wait, but for some reason it hasn’t gotten the same press as the Pebble.
[Kickstarter]
