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Pebble officially shuts down, cancels all Pebble Time 2/Core/Time Round orders

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C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
QxGpxBW.png


This popped up in the other Pebble threads but its worth its own thread.

If you have a kickstarter pledge for Time Round/Core/Time 2, you're getting a refund. All warranties and support for Pebble end today. More info:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...d-core-an-entirely-new-3g-ultra/posts/1752929

Really sucks, I love my Pebble and was looking forward to Time 2. :(
 
V

Vyse The Legend

Member
wenis said:
That Fitbit deal must've gone through.
Click to expand...

Purple Cheeto said:
That's what people on other sites seem to think. Makes sense since the Apple Watch is just a glorified Fitbit.
Click to expand...

Pebble sent a email to Kickstarter backers saying the sale closed this week. It's a done deal.

Maxim726X said:
Ultimately, they got a nice payday.

Not a bad way to end their tale.
Click to expand...

Not really. $30 million from Fitbit vs. the $700+million offer they received last year and rejected. They flew too close to the sun and decided to steer toward it.
 
S

Somnid

Member
RIP Pebble, fantastic little company with a lot of integrity. Always sad to see the small fish eaten by the bigger ones in tech, especially one that wanted to do their own thing and whose allegiance was solely to the customer.

I really hope they get some input on the Blaze 2. The Pebble Time absolutely destroyed it.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Vyse The Legend said:
Pebble sent a email to Kickstarter backers saying the sale closed this week. It's a done deal.



Not really. $30 million from Fitbit vs. the $700+million offer they received last year and rejected. They flew too close to the sun and decided to steer toward it.
Click to expand...

Hindsight. When they first came out, I would've guessed they would more than $700 million at some point.
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Vyse The Legend said:
Not really. $30 million from Fitbit vs. the $700+million offer they received last year and rejected. They flew too close to the sun and decided to steer toward it.
Click to expand...
Those numbers really are insane. I don't see how anyone would turn down that $700M deal unless they really thought their product was worth more than that. Or maybe it was hubris on the part of the owners.
 
F

FairyD

Member
So is the Pebble the most successful kickstarter?

I'm mostly asking what are the most successful kickstarter projects?
 
T

TimeKillr

Member
This is sad. My Kickstarter Pebble is still the best smartwatch I've ever seen. Great battery life, perfect functionality, fun watchfaces. No needless functionality, dumb touchscreen, lightweight...

I loathe the day my Pebble will die and I'll have to go to another shitty smartwatch (or go back to a regular watch, shudder).
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
One-to-one Pebble support is no longer available. Any Pebble currently out in the wild is no longer covered by or eligible for warranty exchange. Users looking to troubleshoot their Pebbles can still visit our Help Portal and community resources:
Click to expand...

There is no way EU law allows this. If the company goes bankrupt, sure, but if another company buys it, it is responsible for the 2 year mandatory warranty.
 
W

Wereroku

Member
Aiii said:
There is no way EU law allows this. If the company goes bankrupt, sure, but if another company buys it, it is responsible for the 2 year mandatory warranty.
Click to expand...

Well you see that is addressed in the email. Fitbit is buying the assets and hiring some of the employees. They are not purchasing the actual company. Pebble itself is shutting down. I am guessing the 50mil covers outstanding debt and maybe a payout for the shareholders but not much else.
 
M

Matt

Member
Aiii said:
There is no way EU law allows this. If the company goes bankrupt, sure, but if another company buys it, it is responsible for the 2 year mandatory warranty.
Click to expand...
No one is buying th company. FitBit bought some assets, but Pebble is disappearing.
 
E

ElectricKaibutsu

Member
Damn, just yesterday I was thinking about taking a look at Pebble again to see if they got the bezel smaller. That's all I wanted then I was going to get one.
 
E

ezekial45

Banned
This thing got way too big for them early on. They struggled to get all those orders out on the initial run, and it became something they just couldn't handle. This is a good pick up for FitBit.
 
S

Smo21

Member
So what happens to the watches everyone already has once their servers go down

Sucks I won't get my time 2 I kick-started.
 
E

emb

Member
Really shame about the Time 2, that looked like a nice piece of hardware. Hopefully Fitbit releases a similar product down the road. When I was looking for one, seemed like Pebble was the only one that really had the right direction.

As petty as it is, I'm not sure if I'd buy the same product from Fitbit though. I kinda liked buying from a smaller company, and honestly the brand name Pebble just sounds good. <.< Also, after some time with a smartwatch, not even sure if I want to stick with it; it's neat, but not sure still if I prefer it to a traditional watch.
 
J

jett

D-Member
I absolutely do not believe they got offered 700 million. For starters, why would ANYONE offer that for Pebble? And secondly, how could Pebble refuse an offer like that?
 
S

SJurgenson

Banned
I'm not shocked they went out in the same way they had been operating for years -- with a stench of shadiness.

Their habit of going back-to-the-well of launching 'kickstarters' (read: preorders) for new models should tell you all you need to know about how they must have run their business.

And the fact is, they were doomed to be niche. You can sell a general consumer on a real smart watch ('its like a shrunken cell phone on your wrist!'), but you were never going to sell them on a Pebble ('it's like that slow kindle e-ink display on your wrist!')

To that, add the fact they were third party -- with both Apple and Android having official first-party-developed smart-watch integration into their OSes, Pebble was always playing catch-up.
 
G

GamingOblivion

Banned
jaxapollo said:
Uhh, no? RIP to the one no one wanted.



38-ceramic-sport-cloud-select
Click to expand...

No one wants smartwatches. They want their shitty exercise bands that they use as a way to try and eat health but don't actually ever do so so it becomes a worthless paperweight. The pebble and other smartwatches had an actual worth and now one of the only good smartwatch makers is dead.

Rip smartwatches.
 
V

Vyse The Legend

Member
Ray Wonder said:
Hindsight. When they first came out, I would've guessed they would more than $700 million at some point.
Click to expand...

I'm more confident that the $700 mil figure was already a way inflated valuation; they were never worth that amount, let alone more. To a company like Citizen, though, that's likely chump change. Plus, I'd agrue it does not require hindsight to see that the Apple Watch would eat their lunch.

Akuun said:
Those numbers really are insane. I don't see how anyone would turn down that $700M deal unless they really thought their product was worth more than that. Or maybe it was hubris on the part of the owners.
Click to expand...

jett said:
I absolutely do not believe they got offered 700 million. For starters, why would ANYONE offer that for Pebble? And secondly, how could Pebble refuse an offer like that?
Click to expand...

They were also offered more than $30mil just this year: $70 million from Intel, which they also rejected.

A source close to the company told TechCrunch that watch maker Citizen was interested in purchasing Pebble for $740 million in 2015. This deal failed and before the launch of the Pebble 2 Intel made an offer for $70 million. The CEO, Eric Migicovsky refused both offers. Our source said that Fitbit is now paying between $34 and $40 million for the company and is &#8220;barely covering their debts.&#8221;
Click to expand...
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
SJurgenson said:
Their habit of going back-to-the-well of launching 'kickstarters' (read: preorders) for new models should tell you all you need to know about how they must have run their business.
Click to expand...

I think that it says that Kickstarter is typically large enough to launch a successful product, but not a successful company.
 
H

Hylian7

Member
What a shame. I had both the original Pebble and am still wearing my Pebble Time. My girlfriend has a Time too. We practically live off the things, and having to very seldom charge them was nice. I was hoping if this deal did happen, that maybe Pebble would still exist as Fitbit Pebble (FitPebble?) or something, but nope. They just completely swallowed Pebble. They were truly the best smartwatches.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
That bit about the warranty is pretty fucked.

I hate that smartwatches are dying. I actually like mine and wanted to buy another one.

I remember when Pebble broke records and every tech company tried to copy them.
 
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