Fitbit might buy Pebble

[Sunrocks]

After their last successfull kickstarter campaign it seems like Pebble will be bought by Fitbit. There is nothing officially announed yet but it seems to be quite likely.

As a kickstarter backer of the time 2 I am quite worried. The backers might get a product which will be not supported in the near future. 

Next to the other smart watches pebble was one of the best alternatives. I hope this will be not the end!

Quote

Sources say that a deal would see Fitbit taking Pebble's intellectual property, such as its operating system, but would see the Pebble brand phased out. It's not clear yet when the deal will be completed, or when it will be announced.

 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/30/13802996/fitbit-buy-pebble-deal-reportedly-close

[8-Bit Ninja]

Rip, i guess thats the risk you take when you donate to kickstater pages, though you can't be certain if they will phase it out or just leave it to make its on watches under the fitbit name, seeing as the pebble and the fitbit are aimed at two completely different use cases. 

[mackncheesiest]

I was a little bit worried when it seemed that their rate of releasing new products was increasing (i.e. the rate at which they churned out Pebble Round, Pebble 2, and Pebble Core after releasing the Time/Time Steel series). I wasn't sure if it was because they were throwing stuff against the wall to see what stuck commercially or if they were actually getting enough commercial success to justify it.

 

Too bad it's starting to look like the former. Wondering if I should try to pick up a Pebble 2 before they go out. Already have a Time Steel and was planning on waiting until they upgraded the Steel series with that much nicer display, but from the look of it, that may not happen 

[79wjd]

fwiw, I don't find that Pebble has added much (in terms of updates) since I got my PTR over a year ago (other than voice SMS). Also, I can't imagine Fitbit would buy Pebble and then not support Pebble devices....it wouldn't really make sense.

[Sniperfox47]

48 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Also, I can't imagine Fitbit would buy Pebble and then not support Pebble devices....it wouldn't really make sense.

It would if they were just after their IP. Why spend the money on continuing to run an app store for a watch with a relatively small client base if you only bought then to get their OS? I don't see a company like Fitbit really having any use for the pebble series from a hardware perspective.

 

This is disappointing, since I was really looking forward to the Time 2 and the Core. Oh well. Guess I should pawn off my current watches before they decide to kill the app store xP

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

It would if they were just after their IP. Why spend the money on continuing to run an app store for a watch with a relatively small client base if you only bought then to get their OS? I don't see a company like Fitbit really having any use for the pebble series from a hardware perspective.

 

This is disappointing, since I was really looking forward to the Time 2 and the Core. Oh well. Guess I should pawn off my current watches before they decide to kill the app store xP

People actually use the app store? 

[Sniperfox47]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

People actually use the app store? 

I do yeah. Music Boss, Snowy, Modern Watchface, and a few others.

[Misanthrope]

This is something where legal protections should be legislated for crowd funding: If you build your company through crowd funding, even though it's technically good faith donations, you can't sell your company without compensating the backers.

 

The biggest scam ever perpetrated on crowd funders was Oculus being bought by Facebook and none of you getting a fucking dime off it when you should have gotten something since your donations created incredible value in the company, enough to be purchased by well, fucking Facebook.

[79wjd]

31 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

This is something where legal protections should be legislated for crowd funding: If you build your company through crowd funding, even though it's technically good faith donations, you can't sell your company without compensating the backers.

 

The biggest scam ever perpetrated on crowd funders was Oculus being bought by Facebook and none of you getting a fucking dime off it when you should have gotten something since your donations created incredible value in the company, enough to be purchased by well, fucking Facebook.

I disagree. It's not like you're buying stock in the company. You're buying a product that has yet to be developed/released. 

[Misanthrope]

6 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

I disagree. It's not like you're buying stock in the company. You're buying a product that has yet to be developed/released. 

I know it's not like you're buying stock in the company, that's my point: it should be like you're buying stock in the company. Perhaps not being entitled to the same benefits and rights an investor has but something in between "investor" and "lol fuck you" would be nice.

[79wjd]

23 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I know it's not like you're buying stock in the company, that's my point: it should be like you're buying stock in the company. Perhaps not being entitled to the same benefits and rights an investor has but something in between "investor" and "lol fuck you" would be nice.

You can change your pledge at any time though, so there isn't really any risk in backing a project. So I could put $500 behind all projects. So if Google/Facebook/etc... shows interest before the deadline, then I keep the $500 backing. If they don't, then I change it to $1.

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

You can change your pledge at any time though, so there isn't really any risk in backing a project.

I'm assuming they'll charge your card or otherwise collect your payment at one point though so not sure what you're trying to say here.

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

I'm assuming they'll charge your card or otherwise collect your payment at one point though so not sure what you're trying to say here.

You can cancel/change your pledge at any point while it's live. 

[sGerli]

This topic has made the Pebble community really angry. In the Discord Pebble Dev chat it hasn't been a normal day, normally in there developers seek help and other developers or Pebble employees help them, but today it has been full of speculation, anger, and sadness. Also the Pebble employees that are normally in there haven't been really in there today.

[abazigal]

13 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

People actually use the app store? 

I get what you mean. The apps are generally of crappy quality and buying them via PayPal is a pain compared to the app stores for iOS and Android. I did buy the odd app here and there, but for most part, I found it a crap shoot. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

13 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

I know it's not like you're buying stock in the company, that's my point: it should be like you're buying stock in the company. Perhaps not being entitled to the same benefits and rights an investor has but something in between "investor" and "lol fuck you" would be nice.

I'm not sure whether I agree that it should legally be that similar. But from the point of view of contributing to crowdfunding campaigns... I'm always going to be wondering why should I do that instead of buying a share/participation/giving a loan/any other traditional financing that actually involves, you know, a return to your investment  Yes, the average Joe can't invest like a venture capitalist or lend like a bank, but a traded company doesn't need to have expensive stocks, it just need a whole bunch of them. If I can "crowdfund" $200, then I can also buy forty $5 shares.

I can understand it when it's just a sort of pre-order: you commit to buy a product that doesn't yet exist so they can go ahead and produce the first batch. You pay the regular price, you get a product, no need for anything else. But beyond that...

[AlTech]

Well at least Pebble might support Windows 10 Mobile in the future then instead of letting their arrogant CEO  have a say in the matter.

 

Well at least Fitbit will definitely support Windows 10 Mobile like they do now with their wearables.

[suicidalfranco]

7 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Well at least Pebble might support Windows 10 Mobile in the future then instead of letting their arrogant CEO  have a say in the matter.

 

Well at least Fitbit will definitely support Windows 10 Mobile like they do now with their wearables.

but pebble still won't support W10M, Fitbit will phase it out if the purchase happens 

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

but pebble still won't support W10M, Fitbit will phase it out if the purchase happens 

Maybe - that's not confirmed. Pebble is a very valuable brand. Fitbit might be interested in the IP for their own brand, but Fitbit is a joke on the smartwatch side of things, whereas Pebble is one of the most popular brands. If they want to expand into the smartwatch market, they made decide to merge or keep the branding. Example, rebrand Pebble as "Pebble by Fitbit".

 

Still, perhaps Fitbit will be more responsible with the brand. The fact that Microsoft had a fully working App for Pebble, that they made for Pebble in good faith, at no charge, and the CEO scrapped the deal at the last minute because he personally didn't like Microsoft.

 

Talk about letting personal biases interfere with consumer choice and operation of your business. Many Windows Mobile users (myself included) were hoping to use Pebble with their phones. And it wouldn't have costed Pebble a penny.

[79wjd]

@dalekphalm 

 

The deal went through, and it looks like Pebble's hardware will slowly lose support -- and interestingly warranty support immediately. The pebble time 2/Core will not see production and all orders will be cancelled/refunded. 

 

Quote

Pebble’s developers will move to Fitbit while development and manufacturing on Pebble’s hardware products will be ceased.

 

Current Pebble devices will continue to operate as normal, maintained by Fitbit. However, functionality and support could be reduced in the future. Warranty support on current Pebble devices is also no longer available.

https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/07/pebble-acquired-by-fitbit/

[dalekphalm]

17 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

@dalekphalm 

 

The deal went through, and it looks like Pebble's hardware will lose support -- and interestingly warranty support as well. The pebble time 2/Core will not see production and all orders will be cancelled/refunded. 

 

https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/07/pebble-acquired-by-fitbit/

Well - this is probably a great purchase for FitBit - but damn, kind of fucks over all the current Pebble users who have hardware still under warranty.

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Well - this is probably a great purchase for FitBit - but damn, kind of fucks over all the current Pebble users who have hardware still under warranty.

it's done btw

[CtrlAltELITE]

11 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Well - this is probably a great purchase for FitBit - but damn, kind of fucks over all the current Pebble users who have hardware still under warranty.

Yup, putting mine on eBay tomorrow when I dig out my box, wasn't 100% sold on the whole smartwatch thing for the year and a half I've had my time, but this has seriously put me off. Hopefully I'll be able to recover some cash before this news kind of blows up.

[VanayadGaming]

Pebble just confirmed this: https://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/?utm_source=Master+Distro+-+Marketing+List&utm_campaign=9ac313d118-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fdec2078fc-9ac313d118-323671841&mc_cid=9ac313d118&mc_eid=4a0edbf748

[captain_to_fire]

3 minutes ago, VanayadGaming said:

Pebble just confirmed this: https://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/?utm_source=Master+Distro+-+Marketing+List&utm_campaign=9ac313d118-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fdec2078fc-9ac313d118-323671841&mc_cid=9ac313d118&mc_eid=4a0edbf748

Given that Fitbit is still the leading wearable in 2016, this makes a lot of sense. Maybe to fully compete with Apple Watch and Android Wear.