Pebble may have take a little flak over its decision to crowdfund the Pebble Time, but few will be able to complain about how the company is supporting people who develop apps for its smartwatches. Developers that have been expanding the array of apps for Pebble have been receiving messages offering them the chance to obtain a free Pebble Time.
Not every developer is being offered the Pebble Time, and nobody is entirely sure what the criteria used is. The information was first shared on Reddit by the developer behind PlexFit, an app that connects the Pebble platform to Google Fit. This was soon verified by responses from other devs who also received the same offer. Not all of these devs have been active on developing for Pebble, as one notes that the only app he wrote was to keep track of his personal train schedule. However, it would appear that Pebble is sending the offers out through its CloudPebble development platform; which would indicate that those who code using the SDK are the ones being left out.
Pebble Time is the followup to the wildly successful Pebble smartwatch that not only launched the company into the public consciousness, but also brought large amounts of publicity to Kickstarter while the crowdsourcing site was in its infancy. Both companies are now doing extremely well, and Pebble’s return to Kickstarter to fund the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel have made it the most funded campaign on Kickstarter.
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Giving something to the developers that have adopted Pebble looks like a nice gesture from the company. It also has a less direct effect of giving them access to the latest Pebble smartwatch, which would help them develop new apps for it. Considering that the Pebble Time brings a new operating system and colour display, it would be important for the company to get as many developers as possible working on the platform.
This looks like a win-win situation for both Pebble and its most loyal fans, and it will certainly garner the smartwatch maker more good will. Interestingly, Pebble itself has been silent on the fact that it is offering the Pebble Time to developers.
[Source: Reddit]
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