Last week, word snuck out suggesting that Pebble was joining Fitbit for around $40 million. While we don’t have official numbers just yet, the acquisition is indeed official and Pebble will shutdown as some of their team members and technology make their way over to the wearable king. If you are a Pebble owner or had a pre-order in on future products, you’ll want to read along as there are tons of things happening here.
For one, Pebble is done “promoting, manufacturing, [and] selling any devices.” That means you can’t buy anything from their store and they aren’t making any new devices. That also means that if you pre-ordered any of their newest products or have unfilled Kickstarter items, you either won’t be charged for those items or you’ll see a refund. Again, Pebble is no longer selling anything.
As for continued support going forward, Pebble says that devices will “continue to work as normal.” However, they also mention that no “immediate” changes to the Pebble user experience will happen just yet, but the door is open there. You should know that “functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future” as well.
Oh, and warranty support “is no longer available for Pebble watches.” That’s right, your warranty is gone, unless you bought your watch from a retailer and they have some other kind of warranty.
Here is the full list of what’s happening with Pebble support, devices, and orders:
- Pebble is no longer promoting, manufacturing, or selling any devices.
- Pebble devices will continue to work as normal. No immediate changes to the Pebble user experience will happen at this time.
- Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future.
- Kickstarter backers who have not received their rewards will receive a full refund within 4-8 weeks as a chargeback to their credit cards. No further action is needed. For more information, please visit our Support page.
- Orders from pebble.com are no longer being accepted or fulfilled, including Pebble 2 pre-orders, which have not yet been charged or shipped.
- Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. How-to information and troubleshooting can still be found on our Support page and in the Pebble Forum.
- Returns of pebble.com orders that were successfully completed before December 7, 2016 will be refunded by our Support Team.
- Pebble watches purchased at retail may be returned or exchanged based on the retailer’s return policy.
- Pebblers can still find replacement charging cables and other compatible accessories (bands, skins, etc.) from Amazon.com and third-party vendors like GadgetWraps and Clockwork Synergy.
- More info
Specific Kickstarter info:
- No further action is needed. Eligible backers will automatically be refunded their pledges for any unfulfilled Pebble rewards (Time 2, Core, Time Round), plus any shipping, taxes, or duties paid.
- The small number of Pebble 2 backers who did not submit the information required to finalize their reward shipments will also be refunded.
- Successfully-received Pebble 2 rewards are the only item not eligible for a Kickstarter pledge refund.
- Backers who ordered add-on Pebble devices to their Pledge Portals after the campaign closed may have seen a temporary authorization charge, which reversed automatically a few days later.
- Refunds are automatically issued to the payment card the original Kickstarter pledge was placed with.
- If the original pledge payment method is no longer active, backers must contact the financial institution that issued the card to receive the returned funds.
- Backers outside of the United States will receive refunds equal to the $USD amount of their pledges at current exchange rates. There will be no adjustments to account for exchange rate fluctuations between the original pledge payment and the upcoming refund.
As for the Fitbit side of this, Fitbit announced via press release that they bought “key personnel and intellectual property related to software and firmware development,” but want nothing to do with Pebble’s hardware. So yeah, Pebble’s time is done, your products will work for a while, and Fitbit will hope to incorporate some of their expertise into Fitbit’s products.
Not to get to gloomy here, but this whole thing, especially the Pebble posts, reads so sad. It’s as if you can tell that Pebble was up high a couple of years back and has been struggling for years to re-gain former glory all the while barely making it by. The steady decline has left them with no choice but to be acquired, when I think it’s safe to say that they would rather have stayed independent.
It’s hard out here.
