Pebble answers critics of umpteenth Kickstarter campaign

Pebble has undoubtedly mastered the art of crowdfunding. Its latest line up of prospective products smashed the funding goal in just an hour.

However, since it went back to the Kickstarter well for the THIRD time to bankroll Pebble Core, Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Time 2 this week, debate has raged over whether the company is morally correct to do so.

After all, Pebble is no longer an unknown seeking to break through with a groundbreaking idea. It is an established household name that has sold millions of smartwatches.

Related: Pebble 2 vs Pebble

How many times does one company need Kick-starting? And does its presence on the crowdfunding platform harm the little guy seeking its first breakthrough? Well, today Pebble sought to answer those questions.

“Crowdfunding a Pebble project on Kickstarter lets us publicly share our product ideas with the world much earlier than a traditional launch,” the company wrote on the campaign page (via SlashGear).

The company said the Kickstarter campaign “gives fans an opportunity to have our latest and greatest stuff first; lets us bring ideas to life together with our growing, devoted community; and helps new people who have never heard of Kickstarter discover the potential of other creative projects on the platform.”

Essentially, Pebble says, it is doing this for its loyal subjects, and not so it can avoid putting its hand in its pocket.

Many observers have argued that a company of Pebble’s size should be able to afford its own production costs, given the success of its previous projects.

Perhaps if the company’s 6/10-rated Pebble Time and 6/10-rate Pebble Time Round ranges hadn’t been so critically underwhelming, it would have the resources to leave the Kickstarter business model behind?

Recently the smartwatch pioneer laid off a quarter of staff, citing cash flow problems. At the time of writing, those problems have been allayed to the tune of eight million dollars.