This company is abusing Kickstarter and they should be banned from all crowdfunding sites.
Look, the first Pebble was a concept project that the creators wanted to see get to market and so they used Kickstarter to drive funding to produce the first watch.
After that, the use of Kickstarter for new models is a complete abuse of this service. This company has MADE MONEY off of selling their first generation of product, and even if it was very little there is no reason for this company to not get the traditional venture capital which should be far easier considering they have established a brand, product and reputation.
However, continuously going back to Kickstarter to fund new models is a cash grab and this company is preying off vapid idealists that will toss a few bucks here and there without thinking twice about what they are doing; at this stage of the game you cannot tell me that Pebble has not made enough capital profit to start developing a new product without pandering for spare change.
The reality is that Pebble is using Kickstarter as their own private pre-sales site which protects them from risk. If Pebble were to pre-sell their watch on their own website they would be held accountable if there are delays in development OR if they stop developing the model for whatever reason. By "selling" through kickstarter, Pebble does not assume any responsibility for not delivering the product, Pebble could walk away from the project if they decide to.
Pebble can set up their own website and pre-sales and fund their future development now on their own. They do no need the crutch of crowdfunding to continue operations, and I think clearly Kickstarter is just as much as fault for this abuse of crowdsourcing because Kickstarter gets a "kick back" of every dollar contributed.
