The last time we covered Pebble the company had just brought to light a new deal to bring Pebble into Best Buy (News - Alert) stores and to their website. We don't know just how many Pebbles Best Buy has helped to move, but according to Pebble the company has delivered on at least over 190,000 Pebbles.
The company is continuing with its retail partnerships - not only with Best Buy but with AT&T (News - Alert) as well. And unlike earlier days when the company was struggling to get even the basic black Pebble out the door to its Kickstarter investors and those who signed up for one via their website ahead of the crowds Pebble has stepped up its own retail game. The company's own website now has all five colors to sell you in hand and beginning today and for a limited time you can obtain your watch for $150, along with free priority shipping.
From day one Pebble has been a company focused on working with developers to deliver a large number of applications. The company has done so on a global basis and there are now thousands of iOS and Android apps available for the watch. On the iOS front Pebble has now completed integrating the Pebble with iOS 7, which means that users will now have seamless interactions with the iOS 7 Notification Center.
Any and all notifications that have been enabled by a user - calls, texts and emails, calendar, Twitter, Facebook, Google (News - Alert)+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Flickr, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Flipboard and more - will now all appear on the Pebble as well. This new capability will be enabled by way of a new Pebble app for iOS that is currently under review by Apple (News - Alert) and should be approved in short order. Of course if you have iOS 7 with auto app update enabled, all the better - the new version will appear automatically.
Pebble is also introducing and launching the new Pebble SDK 2.0, which Pebble claims will make it easier for developers to build Pebble apps. The new SDK delivers four new APIs: JavaScript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage. These new APIs will now let developers create Pebble apps that interface directly with the Web, access the accelerometer, log data when disconnected from the phone and store info directly on the watch through the new persistent storage capability (we do have to wonder if current Pebbles have enough onboard storage for this, however).
The ability to access the Web means users will be able to receive such information as real-time weather, transit info and location details, to name but a tiny few things. Accelerometer access means opening up a new world of health and fitness monitoring as well as gesture-based remote control. Developers will, of course, be able to get a great deal more SDK 2.0 information at Pebble's developer blog.
Here are a few interesting current factoids on Pebble that the company provided today as well:
- Number of Pebbles on wrists worldwide: 190,000;
- Number of apps and faces downloaded: 2 million;
- Number of apps and faces on mypebblefaces.com: 2,200;
- Number of watch faces created on watchface-generator.de: 80,000;
- Number of companion apps available on the iTunes and Google Play stores: 50+;
- Number of developers: 10,000+;
- iControl, Foursquare, GoPro and Yelp (News - Alert) already have watch apps in the works utilizing SDK 2.0.
We'll leave it at that for now. We are expecting the Pebble folks to participate in our upcoming Wearable Tech Expo and Conference taking place December 10 - 11, 2013 in Los Angeles. Join us and meet up with Pebble - and a host of other wearable tech players directly.
Edited by Ryan Sartor
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