What’s
cooler than the world’s coolest cooler? More popular than the Oculus
Rift? Able to leap previous crowdfunding records in a single bound?
The Pebble Time, that’s what.
(Pebble/Kickstarter)
Last night, Pebble concluded its Kickstarter campaign for
its new watch, the Pebble Time, generating in excess of $20 million
dollars from more than 78,000 smartwatch enthusiasts. Nearly all ofthe
funding came from pre-orders of the product, which is scheduled to
become available starting in May.
The Time blew past what is now the second-most-funded Kickstarter project, the $13.3 million Coolest Cooler,
in early March. That in turn thoroughly demolished the record held by
the original Pebble Watch. Launched in April 2012, the Pebble raised
nearly $10.3 million and was the first real indication that smartwatches
were here to stay.
(Pebble/Kickstarter)
Some
20 percent thinner than the original, the Pebble Time adds a color
e-paper display, can show your daily timeline on the watch face, and
lets you reply to texts and take notes via voice. Pebble is claiming 7
days of battery life for the $199 Pebble Time and 10 days for the $299
Pebble Time Steel. Both are compatible with the more than 6500 apps in
the Pebble store.
Read: 10 Things You Must Know Before Investing in That Crazy Crowdfunding Scheme
Technically,
however, Pebble Time is not the most successful crowdfunding project of
all time. The video game “Star Citizen” has raised a total of more than
$76 million so far, all but $6.2 million of it via the game’s own Web
site. That feat earned “Star Citizen” a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Time also cannot boast the highest total number of Kickstarter
supporters. Just shy of 220,000 people kicked in $20 or more to launch
the Exploding Kittens card game.
(Exploding Kittens/Kickstarter)
0 comments:
Post a Comment