Pebble says a million apps have been downloaded, updates status of outstanding Kickstarter orders

To say that Pebble's Kickstarter-launched smartwatch has been more popular than it expected would be a slight understatement. In fact, the company touched base with us today to let us know exactly how much demand there's been for the wearable, how it's going to fulfill that demand and what it's doing to help developers. For a small startup, Pebble's taken a huge amount of orders for its $150 device. Along with the initial 85,000 Kickstarter pledges, the company told us today that it's had over 190,000 pre-orders to date. On top of that, over a million Pebble "watchapps" have been downloaded from Pebble and its developers. Naturally, all that success has created some issues -- to see what the company's planning on doing about it, head after the break.

First off, the company said that almost all of the remaining Kickstarter backers who haven't received their smartwatches yet will get them within a week or so. The only exception is for buyers in Germany, where Pebble has paused shipments due to customs problems, but said they should resume their soon. In addition, the company's shipped out a wave of pre-orders and promised it would pick up the pace on that front, too, as it's rolling out "thousands" of watches per day on its assembly line. It added that the recent retail launch on Best Buy only consists of black Pebbles -- a color that won't impact current orders. However, one popular hue that's now shipping in quantity is white, and Pebble said each client will receive an email letting them know they can pay once their device is ready to ship.

Pebble also had good news for developers, promising to expand the API for a "deeper" user experience and improve communication between smartwatch and smartphone. It's also working on a better way for developers to get their wares into the hands of potential buyers, though it declined to say what form that might take. We're not sure whether all that will assuage buyers who took a $150 flyer on the product, but an AMA today at 3 pm EST on Reddit should give us a clue -- check it out at the More Coverage link below, or check the source for more info.