Good news for those folks that backed the Pebble smartwatch on Kickstarter last year, as the company has announced that it will start shipping watches out to backers this afternoon. Pebble just posted the image you see above on its Kickstarter page as proof that the watches are finally, really going out. Unfortunately, Pebble says that is accidentally sent out more Address Confirmation emails than it has Pebbles available, so some customers that got an email may have to wait a few days for actual shipping info. It's also worth noting that this initial batch of watches contains less than 500 units, but Pebble says that more will be shipped out "soon."
The company today also provided an update on its Pebble apps for iOS and Android. As some iOS folk might've noticed, the Pebble app isn't yet available in the App Store. Pebble explains that the app was submitted two weeks ago and that the company has been responding to the reviewer feedback since. It's not clear when the iOS app will officially go live, but iOS Pebble owners can still use their watch for notifications and music control without it. The official Android Pebble app is expected to go live in Google Play on Jan. 24.
Finally, Pebble also shared some news on how the mass production of its watch is going. The factory is currently churning out around 800 to 1,000 watches per day and is ramping up to full production, which will see it producing 2,400 watches per day. At the start of production, Pebble is creating batches of a single color at a time. Since black was the most popular color, that's what the first run of Pebbles is made up of. However, Pebble says that it's working to kickstart production of other colors "as soon as possible."
The Pebble smartwatch saw tremendous success on Kickstarter last year, gaining over 68,000 backers and $10.2 million in pledges when it had only asked for $100,000. Pebble remained fairly quiet on the watches ship day in the following months, but the company finally announced at CES earlier this month that the first watches would be shipped on Jan. 23, and it looks like Pebble ended up reaching its goal. While the initial batch of Pebbles is pretty small, I'm sure that many of the project's backers are just glad to see that the watch is finally starting to make its way to consumers. How many of you backed Pebble and are expecting a watch? If so, which color did you choose?
Via Kickstarter
