????去年二月，在加拿大多倫多皮爾遜機場，埃里克?米基科夫斯基首次在現(xiàn)實生活中看到自己推出的Pebble手表。從一架午夜航班上下來時，他遇見了一個戴著Pebble手表的人?！澳歉鐐兛吹搅宋?，然后說：‘我這塊Pebble手表剛買沒幾天。好用極了?！泵谆品蛩够χf：“這事真是太不可思議了?！?/p>

????鑒于Pebble首戰(zhàn)告捷，米基科夫斯基可能要對這種事習(xí)以為常了。Pebble智能手表項目去年在眾籌網(wǎng)站Kickstarter上募得近1,030萬美元——比米基科夫斯基原本想募集的金額高出100多倍，一夜之間引起媒體轟動（Pebble也迅速成為眾籌網(wǎng)站Kickstarter最佳例案證）。Pebble公司11名全職員工迄今已經(jīng)發(fā)貨25,000只Pebble手表，對初期支持者的定價為99美元，而零售價為150美元。他們預(yù)計本月將再發(fā)貨50,000只。

????如果Pebble繼續(xù)旺銷，它將成為正在興起的可佩戴式計算機市場上的一家重要廠商。谷歌（Google）將于今年晚些時候攜增強現(xiàn)實眼鏡產(chǎn)品谷歌眼鏡（Google Glass）進軍這個市場。而且如果傳言屬實，蘋果（Apple）也或?qū)⑼瞥鲎约旱闹悄苁直怼Ｊ袌稣{(diào)研公司高德納（Gartner Research）分析師邁克爾?加騰伯格預(yù)期到2015年，可佩戴式計算機將成長為產(chǎn)值高達(dá)百億美元的產(chǎn)業(yè)。

????米基科夫斯基擁有滑鐵盧大學(xué)（University of Waterloo）工學(xué)學(xué)士學(xué)位。某天他在騎自行車時突發(fā)奇想，為什么不設(shè)計一款能與智能手機無線相連的手表呢？而Kickstarter上無比成功的募資讓他異常驚喜。米基科夫斯基回憶說：“我想，如果能在手表上查看短信、來電等各種信息，而不是掏出手機，是不是非常酷？”

????不過，并不是每個人都看好米基科夫斯基的可穿戴式計算機設(shè)備。最初，米基科夫斯基很苦惱無法贏得風(fēng)險投資家們的歡心，這些人可不愿意向一家硬件新創(chuàng)企業(yè)投資。只有四位天使投資人向米基科夫斯基拋出了橄欖枝，其中包括蒂姆?德瑞普。他是加州門羅帕克市德豐杰風(fēng)投基金（Draper Fisher Jurvetson）的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人。他們一共投資375,000美元。德瑞普解釋說：“我一直在思索什么洞悉能夠稱雄‘后蘋果時代’，我的看法是手表和眼鏡有望成為真命天子?！北Ａ_?格雷厄姆創(chuàng)建的風(fēng)險投資公司YCombinator極富盛名，曾孵化出創(chuàng)新公寓出租服務(wù)Airbnb和云存儲技術(shù)公司Dropbox等新創(chuàng)企業(yè)。Pebble最初經(jīng)過了YCombinator的孵化，但直到登陸Kickstarter，Pebble才真正得以立足。

????智能手表不是什么新鮮事物，索尼（Sony）和摩托羅拉（Motorola）等公司都曾經(jīng)推出過類似的產(chǎn)品。但Pebble出手不凡，迅速贏得大量好評。人們交口稱贊它精巧的防水設(shè)計、用心打造的戶外式1.26英寸低功耗顯示屏。Pebble的設(shè)計周期長達(dá)10個月，一共設(shè)計過50多個不同的原型和3D打印模型。Pebble看起來可不像迪克?特蕾西所鐘愛的那種笨重的手表，它可是一款時尚產(chǎn)品。它的功能就像廣告說的那樣：用戶只需打開iPhone或Android手機的藍(lán)牙，就能在Pebble上屏蔽來電、查看郵件和信息。（收到郵件或短信的時候，Pebble會震動。）

????The first time Eric Migicovsky saw his watch in the wild was at Toronto's Pearson Airport last February. Disembarking a late-night flight, he ran into someone sporting a Pebble on his wrist. "The guy saw me and was like, 'Good work. I just got mine the other day,'" recounts Migicovsky, laughing. "It was just the weirdest thing."

????Given its initial success, Migicovsky may want to get used to such encounters. His device, the Pebble smartwatch, became an overnight media sensation last year when it snagged almost $10.3 million in funding on Kickstarter -- over 100 times the original amount Migicovsky hoped to raise. (The Pebble also quickly became exhibit A for the crowdfunding site's power.) The firm's 11 full-time employees have shipped 25,000 watches to date, priced at $99 for early supporters and $150 retail. They expect to ship another 50,000 this month.

????If brisk sales continue, the Pebble is poised to become a significant player in the emerging wearable computing market, which Google (GOOG) will enter later this year with its augmented reality eyeglasses, Google Glass. Even Apple (APPL) may have a smartwatch of its own coming -- if rumors are to be believed. Gartner Research analyst Michael Gartenberg estimates wearable will become a whopping $10 billion industry by 2015.

????The sudden swell in backing came as a surprise to Migicovsky, a University of Waterloo graduate with an engineering degree, who first dreamed up the idea of a watch that connected wirelessly with a smartphone while he was out cycling one day. "I thought, wouldn't it be cool to see text messages, caller ID, and that kind of thing right there on your watch instead of having to take out your phone?" he recalls.

????Not everyone shared Migicovsky's enthusiasm for wearable computing then. Early on, Micicovsky had trouble generating interest from many venture capitalists who were reluctant to invest in a hardware company with the exception of $375,000 raised from four angel investors, including Tim Draper, co-founder of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "I was thinking, 'what happens in a post-Apple world,' and I decided it was watches and glasses," Draper explains. And while Pebble first passed through Paul Graham's famed YCombinator, the same startup incubator that yielded Airbnb and Dropbox, it wasn't until Kickstarter that Pebble really found its footing.

????Although so-called smartwatches have been tried by other companies like Sony (SNE) and Motorola, the Pebble earned a slew of mostly positive reviews that applauded its sleek waterproof design, including that outdoors-friendly 1.26-inch power-sipping screen that was designed with subtlety in mind. Thanks to a 10-month design process that involved over 50 different prototype designs and 3-D-printed mock-ups, the Pebble looks less like those chunkywatches favored by Dick Tracey and more like a contemporary timepiece. It also works largely as advertised. So long as users have an iPhone or Android device with Bluetooth, Pebble owners can screen calls, check email and other messages. (The Pebble vibrates for every incoming email and text received.)