Pebble partners with Amazon to launch smartwatches in India

Smartwatch maker Pebble today announced its foray into India’s nascent but growing wearables market and said it aims to sell about one lakh units in the next one year. Pebble has partnered Amazon to launch smartwatches in the country, priced Rs 5,999-15,999. It is bringing four models from its portfolio to the country.

“India is a key part of our strategy. Already, we estimate that 20,000 people have bought Pebbles from various channels.  With Pebble now officially launching in India, we expect to sell about 1,00,000 units in the first year,” Pebble founder and CEO Eric Migicovsky Said.

He added the company has already sold about one million smartwatch globally.Set up in 2012, Pebble has over 17,000 developers on its platform. “A key focus area for us will be to expand the base of developers that we work with in India. We are meeting many of them and will continue to engage with them to bring great experiences for our users,” he said.

According to research firm IDC, 110 million wearable devices are expected to be shipped in 2016, up by nearly 38 per cent from the last year. “As India continues to be at the centre of technological revolution led by smartphone penetration, there is a huge opportunity for adoption of wearable technology,” he said.  Pebble has also introduced its health & fitness ecosystem-Pebble Health, a software update that enables non-stop activity tracking and sleep monitoring in all its smartwatches.

Many players like Apple, Huawei and others have launched their smartwatches in the market. Besides, many fitness band makers are also equipping their products to offer notifications and updates from the user’s phones to compete with the smartwatch makers.

“We want to be the Swatch of the smartwatch industry.  Pebble watches are smart, beautiful and affordable. There is a Rolex in the market but Swatch has huge audience as well,” he said. Pebble Health is fully compatible with Google Fit and Apple Health Kit.