Pebble Smartwatch: Now Officially In India

When Pebble calls itself a smartwatch pioneer, it certainly has a right to that claim. It was back in 2012 when the first Pebble smartwatch was pledged from a Kickstarter campaign, becoming massively successful, and getting around $10 million for development of the product.

Today Pebble Technology Corp has announced its entry into the India market with its range of smartwatches including Pebble Classic, Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round. These smartwatches will be exclusively available on Amazon.in today onwards and it includes a Cash on Delivery option.

Eric Migicovsky, CEO of Pebble Technology, says he first had the idea of developing a smartwatch eight years ago when he was cycling. "I love cycling and I wanted to be able to see who was calling me, or texting or emailing me just by looking down at my wrist," says Migicovsky. "In the beginning, the Pebble watch was a "watch that shows you text messages and email,' but in time the watch was used most for fitness tracking, which is today what it does best.

IDC predicts 110 million wearable devices to be shipped in 2016, up by nearly 38 percent from the last year. Like many tech and mobile companies, Pebble Technology also sees India as the next big market for its products because of the increasing number of mobile users. Although no office has been set up in India yet, partnering with Amazon.in will let the company easily get its smartwatches to the Indian consumer. Pebble is introducing its range on Amazon.in starting at Rs 5,999 for Classic, Rs 9,999 for Pebble Time, Rs 13,599 for Pebble Time Round & Rs 15,999 for Pebble Time Steel.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Samir Kumar, Vice President, Amazon India said, "We are very happy to offer our customers across India the first access to Pebble smartwatch. Customers today are very tech-savvy and are constantly on the lookout for purchasing interesting new devices well as updating their existing gadgets. We see this as a great opportunity to enable an easy and convenient access to the Pebble and add joy to their shopping experience on Amazon.in."

Pebble has also introduced its health and fitness ecosystem- Pebble Health, a software update that enables non-stop activity tracking and sleep monitoring in all its smartwatches. Pebble Health features timeline, an interface that highlights what's important in the day so users can get things done. It with timeline to give the user stats, daily progress reports and personal averages. It's compatible with Google Fit and Apple Health Kit, Pebble Health.

The smartwatch has an always-on, easy-to-read, color e-paper display; They work with Android and the iPhone. There's an in-built Pebble app store to access the over 13,000 free apps and watchfaces available. Currently Pebble is setting up hackathons for developers in India to make apps specifically for India. The company has launched special watchfaces for Indian market.

Of the products available Pebble Classic is the original and simple smartwatch that comes with a 1.26-inch ePaper display, an ultra-low-powered Sharp LCD with a 144x168-pixel resolution. Once fully charged, Pebble Classic can last for 7 days. It includes a motion-sensing accelerometer and Ambient Light Sensor. The waterproof smartwatch is available in five colors: Cherry Red, Jet Black, and Arctic White. It also offers basic control of music on the phone including displaying song titles.

Pebble Time focuses on daylight readability, with a colour e-paper display. It also has voice dictation for message replies..There are several variants of Pebble Time including the Steel and Round and several colour and style and size options. The watch straps are changeable and not proprietary. The Pebble watches have a quick-charging battery such as on Pebble Time Round that last up to two days on a single charge. Charging for 15 minutes is enough to achieve a day of battery life.