Rather than hurting sales of the Pebble smartwatch, the debut of the Apple Watch has actually helped the company, its CEO has revealed, thanks to increased consumer awareness of wearable devices.
Rather than hurting Pebble, the Apple Watch appears to have boosted the wearables space, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky said in an interview with CNBC. He revealed that his company is selling twice the amount of smartwatches than it was at this same point last year.
"We've actually seen no material impact from Apple entering the space on our sales," Migicovsky said.
His comments are similar to those from Fitbit earlier this week, when officials from company also said they had seen no "material impact" on sales of their devices thanks to the debut of the Apple Watch. Like Migicovsky and Pebble, Fitbit executives believe their products target a different consumer.
While Fitbit's products are focused on an active lifestyle, Pebble is positioned as a low-end, affordable, and "fun" smartwatch. Migicovsky said that if Apple wants to be Rolex or Tag Heuer, Pebble is content to be the equivalent of Swatch in the smartwatch space.
This year, Pebble expanded its lineup with a new round model that starts at $250 --Â $100 cheaper than the base Apple Watch Sport. The company also debuted the $199 Pebble Time, and a $299 steel version of the square-faced model.
Prior to Apple's entry, the wearable devices market was small. Earlier this year, estimates pegged total 2014 smartwatch sales at just 6.8 million units, with an average selling price of $189.
Citing competitive reasons, Apple has declined to reveal specific sales figures for the Apple Watch. But financial data disclosed by the company reveals that total revenue from the device topped $1.7 billion in its first five months of availability.