The Pebble smartwatch is officially dead. Following Fitbit’s acquisition, Pebble will be stopping all operations after having sold over 2 million smartwatches worldwide.
In their latest update, Pebble will no longer exist as an independent entity and all key assets will be acquired by Fitbit. With immediate effect, Pebble will no longer manufacture, promote or sell any new products.
While all existing Pebble products will continue to work, they won’t be providing any support or warranty from this point on. This means no more software updates and you won’t be able to get any help should anything go wrong with your device.
As reported earlier, the Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core have been cancelled and they will be processing refunds to all backers. If you have an unfulfilled pebble order, you’ll get a refund as well. The kickstarter refund process will begin only in March 2017. For those who have purchased at retail stores in the US, you can get a refund but it depends on their return policy.
It’s sad that a company that has gotten the basics of smartwatch right has come to this. With this latest development, existing Pebble customers are left hanging high and dry. It is obvious that Fitbit doesn’t care about the product or its community. According to Bloomberg, the Fitbit deal was all about getting their software engineers and intellectual property.
On the smartwatch segment as a whole, it is on a decline with IDC reporting a 51.6% drop in shipments for the past year. The Apple Watch is currently the leader capturing 41.3% market share, followed by Garmin at 20.5% and Samsung at 14.4%.
Do you own a Pebble? I personally own three and I still love them for its excellent battery life. It isn’t as feature packed as today’s smartwatches but it has that special appeal to it. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
