It's been a few days since the dust settled around the Fitbit/Pebble acquisition, and we were left with one less smartwatch manufacturer in the market. What we didn't get out of the buyout, however, is what Fitbit was planning on doing with the assets that it acquired from the now-defunct Pebble.
Pebble made smartwatches first with an afterthought on fitness tracking, which is completely the opposite of Fitbit. Common sense says Fitbit is probably going to charge into the smartwatch market sooner rather than later, bolstering its lineup with something a little more smartwatch-y than the Fitbit Blaze, even though Fitbit hasn't come right out and say “yep, we're making a smartwatch that's going to be a Pebble but not really a Pebble.”
Fitbit CEO James Park has discussed a few vague details about the future of Fitbit and their place in the smartwatch market, and it sounds exciting for someone that wants a shakeup in the current form factors that we have. Park has already stated that the company is planning some innovative new devices next year, and Fitbit already scooped up Coin earlier this year, a company that had a mobile payment solution in the works. Now that they've added Pebble's software platform into the mix, we've got a full recipe for a fitness-tracking smartwatch that can double as a mobile wallet.
Fitness trackers and wearables have seen softening demand, so maybe the addition of mobile payments is Fitbit's secret sauce to success. Samsung and Apple are both touting the mobile payment capabilities of their smartwatch platforms (with Google hopefully not too far behind), so maybe Fitbit's unique take on the situation will help shape and grow the market. After all, it was Fitbit that originally started the craze of fitness tracking wearables that pair with their smartphone.
source: The Verge
This article has ZERO “details” from Park on the Pebble acquisition. Total clickbait.
For Fitbit, a little good will to current Pebble owners would go a long way: especially after Migicovsky cut-and-ran. Wouldn’t Fitbit acquire a fair amount of loyalty from the million or so Pebble buyers just by maintaining the Pebble servers and updates (esp security) for a certain period of time: perhaps about the intended life span of the watch – a couple of years. As it is, I’m disgusted by how this played out with all the BS from Migicovsky about his loyalty to customers etc. As of now, I have no intention to purchase a Fitbit regardless of what they put out at whatever price.
Well it’s a little more than he cut and ran, the company wasn’t able to pay it’s debts.
The fact they had to run three kickstarter campaigns to get the funds needed to make all generations of the pebble. Means that they weren’t making any money in the first place. Coupled with the fact that there was almost no advertising done for the pebble.
I never bought a current generation pebble, I have owned or own the original and two pebble time. I lost my first pebble time and the battery died on the pebble.
At this point I’m only invested about $150 in three watches. I’m sad to see the company close but it’s not surprising to me that it failed.
If Fitbit does something with the pebble I’ll be happy but at this point I’m just gonna cut my losses and move on.
I was just in the move from a Fitbit Charge HR to a Pebble 2. Now it will be Garmin in stead.
I’d rather not buy anything fitbit, someone might buy them out and not honor warranty claims
I sure miss my Time 2 that I backed. I bought a last-years Time Steel to help ease the pain. It’s a great watch. Wish it had a larger screen. I don’t care about fitness and the heart rate monitor on the Time 2, I just wanted a larger screen.