It seems that the smartwatch dream, and the hype, lives on, at least for the creators and supporters of the Neptune Pine smartwatch. Now that its Kickstarter campaign has reached its funding target, the project is now looking towards stretch goals that seek to give its users and even better smartphone, or, rather, smartwatch, experience.
The Neptune Pine is a curiosity and oddity that arouses conflicting emotions and opinions. On one hand, it is quite interesting to see a smartwatch that is truly smart and isn’t just an expensive accessory or a glorified pedometer. But on the other hand, the unwieldly size makes it look more like a pager than a watch and full smartphone features seem a bit overkill. Nonetheless, it has its fair share of supporters that helped it gather $150,000 worth of pledges above its $100,000 goal, with 31 days to spare even.
Now that it’s is in the safe zone, followers of the project are looking towards reaching stretch goals or features that get implemented or offered upon reaching certain funding milestones. The $200,000 stretch goal, which intends to bring a new design to the removable strap, is almost within reach. But probably more interesting for would-be owners is the $300,000 goal, which will let Neptune create a special quad-band CDMA version of the Pine smartwatch, which will be important for subscribers of certain carriers such as Verizon.
With a whole month left, it’s quite possible that Neptune will be adding other stretch goals to fill in the gap. So those interested in this odd device and have the time, not to mention the money, to spare, might want to keep to keep their eyes on their Kickstarter page.