Pebble has frequently received requests from its users for a dedicated appstore and finally, it gets around to creating an official app marketplace for its platform.
Pebble said it will soon launch an app store for its smartwatch and this will be available early next year. The Pebble appstore, as the company calls it, will serve as the central location for Pebble users to find and install watchfaces and apps.
The appstore will be directly integrated with the main Pebble app and includes watchfaces and six app categories namely daily, remotes, sports & fitness, notifications, tools & utilities and games. The app categories may be a little different from what is typically seen in mobile software marketplaces but that's to be expected since Pebble is a pioneer in wearable tech. Each of the categories will also feature a selection of the best and new apps.
The launch of the Pebble apstore will coincide with the release of Pebble 2.0, which is currently in beta. Among the new features of Pebble 2.0 is the ability for apps and watchfaces to pull in data from other sources on the Web without the need to use a separate companion app running on the phone.
As for third-party apps and watchface discovery tools that have long existed, Pebble assures that these will continue to work on Pebble 2.0 and that it will not block or prevent installations from these sites. The company, however, said that the Pebble appstore will be the best medium for promoting and distributing Pebble applications.
"Pebble appstore will be included in the official Pebble smartphone application and will be the first place where Pebble users look for Pebble apps. For developers, the Pebble appstore is the best way to promote and distribute your Pebble applications to users," the company said in a blog post.
Paid apps won't be supported at launch so everything that can be downloaded from the appstore will be free. Developers, however, have the option to charge for a companion iOS or Android app. The company doesn't also plan to review or prevalidate apps but software that violates Pebbles' service terms will be removed from the appstore.
