Following the confirmation of the acquisition by Fitbit on Pebble's developer's blog, Pebble is now officially shutting down their operations and no longer promoting, manufacturing or selling any Pebble devices. As mentioned by Pebble's founder, Eric Minicovsky in the blog post -
"Pebble is no longer able to operate as an independent entity. We have made the tough decision to shut down the company and no longer manufacture Pebble devices."
There was no exact mentioning of the terms of deal, however, it seems that Fitbit has only acquired partial assets of Pebble such as the key personnel, software and firmware development team.
The blog however did make it clear for their customers on the status for the current and future product and services:
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 by December 16, 2016 to their credit cards. No further action is needed. For more information, please visit our Support page.
It may take up to ten business days for the refund to appear on a backer’s credit or debit card statement. In the event that the initial refund attempt is unsuccessful, steps will be taken to ensure all refunds are successfully processed. Once a refund is successfully processed, backers will receive an email from Kickstarter notifying them of the amount of the refund and the payment source refunded.
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.
If you have any other questions about Pebble’s wind-down of operations, please visit this page.
It is sad to hear this news as Pebble was the pioneer in the smartwatch industry. The original Pebble watch is one of the most successful Kickstarter project ever.
Furthermore, the cease of support for the devices means the demise of the product as the Pebble smartwatch will no longer be compatible with newer mobile operating system in the future. Heck, even warranty support will be discontinued alongside with the wind-down operations.
What do you think? Do let us know in the comments.
Source: Pebble Developer Blog