Today’s the day that the Apple Watch makes its real-life debut in Apple and other specially-selected stores across the world.
And although the Apple brand has for nearly a decade had people queuing round the block, often overnight, the new smart device is coming from behind in the wearables market and has a top-end price tag of a not-in-this-world $17,000.
Instead of facing the long line, we caught up with developer evangelist Matthew Tole from Pebble, Apple’s closest rival in the smartwatch game, to chat about what’s next for the people’s wearable brand. The company has already sold more than 1m units since it launched two years ago, at a cost of up to $299 each, but caught the public imagination even earlier when it smashed Kickstarter records back in 2012.
Pebble is now very focused on creating a cosy ecosystem for fans and developers to feel part of, symbolised last month with the launch of a $1m fund to enable people to hack Pebble’s hardware. Will it be able to face down the world’s most profitable company?