Pebble smartwatch launches at Best Buy, online store already sold out

By Trevor Mogg Published July 8, 2013

Best Buy started selling the Pebble smartwatch at its brick-and-mortar stores and online this week as the company behind the device makes moves to take it mainstream.

Reports late last week suggested Best Buy was about to become the first retail chain to stock the app-enabled, programmable gadget, and on Sunday the Pebble team confirmed the move in a statement.

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Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky said demand for the high-tech watch is high, and that “Best Buy’s partnership with us is a big step towards meeting that demand.”

But if you thought picking up a Pebble from the retail giant would be an easy way to avoid having to wait till the summer (the current shipping date if ordered from Pebble’s website), you might want to call ahead to check it’s in stock. The $150 smartwatch is, at the time of writing, showing up at bestbuy.com/pebble with sold out notices for those wishing to order online.

Some of those who’ve managed to get their hands on a Pebble from the retail giant have been quick to post reviews on the store’s website, ranging from a five-star “awesome companion to my S4” to a one-star “DOA out of the box”. Blank or fading screens appear to be the cause of several of the negative reviews.

Best Buy is only stocking the black Pebble for the time being. The cherry red Pebbles should arrive in August, while the three other colors – orange, gray, and Arctic white – are available for pre-order at getpebble.com.

The customizable Bluetooth watch caught the imagination of the Kickstarter community last year, earning over $10.2 million from more than 68,000 backers.

Wearable tech is predicted to be the next big thing for the tech world, with – if reports are to be believed – wrist-based gadgetry currently the focus of many of the big companies.

Samsung, Apple and Google, for example, are all thought to be in the midst of building smartwatches, while Sony already has one on the market, the second iteration of which is set to launch in September. If Pebble can get its factory to pump out more of its watches to keep up with demand, the tie-up with Best Buy could prove to have been an astute move by Migicovsky as he attempts to gain a foothold in the market before the big hitters arrive on the scene with their huge marketing budgets.

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Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
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Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
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In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.