Pebble, the smartwatch that can display and interact with apps on Android and iPhone smartphones, announced on Wednesday a partnership with popular fitness app RunKeeper that will allow users to wirelessly control and display information from the app on their Pebbles. “Making the RunKeeper app accessible from Pebble is another step towards making fitness tracking simple for our users.” said RunKeeper CEO Jason Jacobs. “People don’t just want to track their fitness activities, they want to do so in the most convenient way possible, and you can’t beat the form factor of a smart watch.” RunKeeper boasts more than 10 million users and was one of the highest grossing health and fitness apps in Apple’s App Store in 2010. “We welcome RunKeeper to the Pebble app family and we’re flattered that they are our first app partner,” said Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble Technology. The smartwatch is being fully funded through the crowd-source website Kickstarter and has become the most funded project in the site’s history. The Pebble has garnered more than 53,000 backers and thus far has raised over $8 million. The device is slated to be released in September. Pebble’s press release follows below.
Pebble Announces RunKeeper Will Build First Watchapp
RunKeeper Data Will be Displayed on Pebble’s E-Paper Display And Runners Can Now Control the App Without Ever Having to Touch their Phone
PALO ALTO, CA – (May 2, 2012) – Pebble, the revolutionary smart watch that will display and interact with apps on your iPhone or Android device, today announced it’s first app partner will be RunKeeper, one of the most successful mobile apps ever that makes tracking workouts fun, social, and easy to understand.
With this app for Pebble, RunKeeper’s in-activity fitness data will be shown on Pebble’s E-Paper display, which looks great indoors as well as outdoors under direct sunlight. Runners, cyclists, hikers, walkers and skiers will be able to use Pebble to wirelessly control the RunKeeper app, eliminating the need to remove the phone while on the go. Pebble even makes it possible to pause or skip music tracks right from the watch.
“Making the RunKeeper app accessible from Pebble is another step towards making fitness tracking simple for our users.” said Jason Jacobs, CEO of RunKeeper. “People don’t just want to track their fitness activities, they want to do so in the most convenient way possible, and you can’t beat the form factor of a smart watch.”
RunKeeper has more than 10 million users, and it was one of the highest grossing health & fitness apps in the iPhone App Store in 2010. It is available on both iPhone and Android.
“We welcome RunKeeper to the Pebble app family and we’re flattered that they are our first app partner,” said Eric Migicovsky, of Pebble Technology. “One of the most exciting things about Pebble is that anyone will be able to build apps for the watch, which is going to result in new capabilities and functionality that we haven’t even thought of yet.”
Pebble will release an open software development kit (SDK) in August, enabling even more applications to be developed for the Pebble platform. A watchapp directory will be launched later in 2012 to provide a distribution method for all Pebble apps.
Consumers have already registered their interest in Pebble with more than 53,000 individual backers on Kickstarter, the crowd sourced funding platform. The project was posted on the Kickstarter platform on April 11 and since that time backers have pledged more than $7.5 million towards Pebble.
Pebble is the first watch built for the 21st century. It’s infinitely customizable, with beautiful downloadable watch faces and useful internet-connected apps. Pebble connects to iPhone and Android smartphones, alerting you with a silent vibration to incoming calls, emails and messages.
