
Fitbit is reportedly buying Pebble for around $40M - Doubleguitars
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/30/fitbit-pebble/
======
modeless
I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right
engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone
wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color
screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only
a few mm thick. That perfect watch is impossible to build, but Pebble found
compromises that worked. They chose different compromises than those of Apple
and Google, and IMHO better ones. The Pebble Time Round is a tiny little
triumph of smart engineering compared with any other product on the market,
including the Apple Watch.

In particular it's incredible what the Pebble firmware team was able to
accomplish. They built a bespoke OS that's extremely reliable (certainly more
reliable than Android Wear), with an app SDK and store, _plus_ a well thought
out user interface with a striking visual design and even fun little animated
flourishes, despite running in a fraction of the power budget of Apple or
Android smartwatches. How many companies could have done that? Fitbit is
getting a bargain, if that team is still intact.

~~~
ClassyJacket
I don't know why anyone cares about week long battery life. It would give me
literally no advantage. I take my watch off when I go to sleep, so I simply
put the charger on the table near my bed, and that's where I put it. It's no
more effort to charge it than to not charge it.

I can understand 2 days since you might stay at your girlfriend's house or
something, but mine already can do 2 days anyway.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _I take my watch off when I go to sleep_

This is where you differ from many (probably most?) watch wearers.

~~~
abritinthebay
I would say the inverse. The only people I know that leave a "watch" on are
sleep trackers.

Which is a tiny tiny niche

~~~
mercer
Really? That's surprising. Back when I wore a watch (over ten years ago), I
only took it off for showers. Part of the appeal was being able to leave it on
at all times and not have 'yet another device that needs special instructions
before sleep'.

~~~
abritinthebay
Yup, even the people who are "watch people" (ie - they think nothing of
collecting expensive swiss hand-made ones) are the same.

 _shrug_

------
untog
I'll be very sad, if not surprised, to see Pebble go. I backed the V1 Pebble
on Kickstarter but gave up wearing it after a few months as it looked, well,
not good[1]. Against my better judgement I threw caution to the wind and
bought a Pebble Time Round[2] a while ago. It's fantastic. I get compliments
on it before people even realise it's a smartwatch, and it does all I really
need from one (notifications plus a little step tracking stuff).

Apple and Android watches have never appealed to me, but they have an obvious
market advantage, so I suppose this was inevitable. But boy does it make me
sad. The only upside is that I'm not really anticipating any new features on
my Round and am content just as it is - it should continue to work as-is for a
while yet.

[1]
[https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/sF4gFNZCv6n7hNYYI2vb9J_n3do...](https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/sF4gFNZCv6n7hNYYI2vb9J_n3do=/620x0/2013/04/01/3ce5f4fa-053a-11e3-bf02-d4ae52e62bcc/Pebble_Watch_35567496_07.jpg)

[2]
[https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/1.jpg?w...](https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/1.jpg?w=1&h=1)

(photos to illustrate the great progress they made in just a few years)

~~~
djsumdog
I still have the first gen Pebble Steel and I really like it. The display gets
a little funky sometimes, but it's held up.

The problem with their model is they kept pushing newer watches. I'm fine with
my black and white Pebble. It does everything I want. I mean the new ones look
nice. I'd get one if I didn't have one already. I still like the design of the
original Steel over most of the newer watches as well.

I hope it lasts several more years. They made a great product, and I'm glad
they didn't depend on planned obsolescence like the cellphone manufactures
that have left us in this Android mess. I wish that model wasn't required for
growth.

They should had found some other means to support the company while keeping
the wearables as just one of a larger line of products or services. Even
something totally unrelated like professional grade home routers or garden
watering systems or some other IoT crap.

~~~
stevewillows
The fix is identical to the OG Pebble. Contact them first and they might
replace it -- but you'll still have the same issue.

1\. Turn off your OG Pebble

2\. Remove the rear panel, either with the proper screwdriver or a small
precision flathead

3\. Gently lift up the panel and move it to the side. The vibration is glued
to this panel, so go slowly. You do not have to remove the vibration piece.

4\. Cut two small pieces of paper to fit the side of the pebble with the board
exposed. Cut a space for the wiring, then slip it in.

5\. Reassemble the Pebble

6\. Turn it on.

~~~
entropy_
I did that, and it worked for a while, but then the issues were back something
like a month later. Adding more padding causes the back panel not to close
properly so that's not an option. I'm stuck with the display getting weird
every once in a while now(replacement is not an option, the watch is almost 4
years old at this point).

~~~
stevewillows
contact them anyway. Before I discovered this fix, I had one replaced.

Its worth a shot. They'll give you a case number and ask you to take a photo
of the screen tearing along with your case number. Pretty standard.

~~~
pauly
agreed, nephew got his pebble steel replaced no questions for serious screen
issues. I have minor screen issues occasionally though have had mine for a
couple of years. Might try for a replacement. Might they send me a fitbit now
instead..?

~~~
stevewillows
Contact them. When you get the new one, try the fix above on the old one to
see if you can get it fixed.

I'm concerned about this acquisition. The few people I know with Fitbits have
had nothing but trouble with them.

------
dirtbox
Extremely sad. Especially when they were offered $750 million by Citizen not
long ago.

I've found the watches to be a joy to use, to develop for and the community is
sensational. I have no hopes it'll survive as is with Fitbit.

If you have a Pebble and are involved in any way in it's development, I
strongly recommend you have a look at Gadgetbridge
[https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge](https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge)

~~~
sah2ed
> Extremely sad. Especially when they were offered $750 million by Citizen not
> long ago.

I couldn't seem to find a source for this claim. Source?

~~~
cocoflunchy
It's in the article...

------
ivanb
Having just recently bought Pebble 2 SE I have some things to say about the
product. Unlike a smartphone Pebble has a benefit of staying always with you,
thus it is better than a smartphone for things like habit tracking, habit
reversal therapy, time tracking. It reduces friction from having to reach out
for your phone because it is always on your wrist and it has this great
feature of quick actions. Basically you can assign any or all of its 4 buttons
to launch an app or perform an action on long-press. This is invaluable.

Another great feature is smart alarm. It works similarly to Sleep As Android
and suchlike but you don't have to sleep with your smartphone on your bed.

Other than that it can do notifications, quick replies, music player remote
control, show you two days of calendar appointments, weather, countdown to
next Apple announcement and last but not least time and date.

What I'm missing is the ability to create voice notes or having a real smart
voice assistant like Google Now. It has its alternatives which are IMHO not
near as good. The hardware is not a limiting factor here - it has a
microphone.

Always-on screen and at least 5 days of battery life with pretty fast charging
are not bad things either.

The actual fitness-tracking thing, the step counter, is not very precise and
it is only good to make sure that you get enough movement.

So all in all it is not a fitness tracker. It is more of a lifestyle companion
that can help you to keep on schedule, form new habits and make better use of
your time. It would be best marketed to GTD/time management crowd than to
fitness enthusiast who have much much better fitness tracking devices.

~~~
waldir
> things like habit tracking, habit reversal therapy, time tracking

What apps do you recommend for these purposes?

~~~
ivanb
"Habits" for habit tracking. "20 seconds timer" for a kind of habit reversal,
"SciPomodoro" for pomodoro timer. "Job Timer" just to see where time went
during the day.

------
antirez
I was a Fitbit user for 1 year: good functionalities but terrible hardware,
the Fitbit Charge HR breaks in a matter of months. They replace it, and it
breaks again. So switched to Pebble 2, pre-ordering it: for the same price
point it's waterproof, has an always on display and notifications. However
I've still to receive it... while it's already on Amazon: lame. Btw... I'm a
bit concerned that what was good about Pebble could go away in this fusion
between the companies. Sure Pebble could make Fitbit hardware better, but
there are also issues in the way the company (Fitbit) presents itself and the
kind of software/UI it presents. A random things: export of your data is
limited.

~~~
teach
I'm also a Charge HR user; I fixed mine with superglue. My dream scenario
would be if this merger produced a Pebble 3 with the excellent heart-rate and
sleep tracking of the HR.

~~~
antirez
Same dream here. But was going to be true since Pebble 2 has the HR sensor,
and to make an accurate sleep tracker once you also have HR data does not
sound like too hard. So I hope Fitbit is not going to ruin the dream.

~~~
teach
I've read that the heart rate sensor on the Pebble 2 isn't there yet.
Hopefully that is just an algorithms problem though and will improve over
time.

Don't remember seeing any reviews of the Pebble 2 from existing Fitbit Charge
HR users, though.

------
sundvor
This makes me very sad. Pebble pretty much invented the smartwatch segment,
yet didn't quite have the mass appeal or marketing muscle to make it really
big.

Here's my personal account, nothing particularly interesting will follow so
you may want to skip to the next post unless you're a fan like me:

Whilst I followed it closely, and was super intrigued by the concept, I wasn't
able to get in on their first Kickstarter. However as soon as I saw that the
Pebble Steel was announced I ordered it straight away in 2014.

I absolutely loved that watch. Being able receive notifications meant no more
having to look at my phone every few minutes. There were some quality concerns
- I had to get 2x Pebble Steel replacements, first due to the screen tearing
issue, second due to non-functioning buttons - and then my 3rd one, was good
until the day it sadly got stolen! (I was wondering, how are they making any
money this way?)

I had switched to the Pebble Time Steel by then, as a Kickstarter backer, but
still liked the OG Steel's somewhat more retro design. Unfortunately the Time
Steel's contrast ratio was a bit of a downgrade, so as such I'm rather hopeful
my Pebble Time 2 kickstarter will be delivered in the end.

Around this time, the Apple Watch got released. The display was off unless
shaken / interacted with, didn't work with Android, and lasted less than a day
(even with the display off most of the time). My Pebble Time Steel would do 10
days, before the fitness and sleep tracking update. After that it did 8-9, and
still does.

Last month I received the Pebble 2, and am loving its display - it is even
better than the Pebble Steel - and HRM. Seeing the announcement I'd like to
get my wife a Pebble 2 as well, to upgrade her Pebble Time, before it's too
late.

Lastly I'd like to give a huge kudos to the Pebble dev team for their constant
updates. The past year has seen some fantastic developments; the Pebble OS
just keeps on getting better. So, yes, that's quite a few Pebbles. I'm a fan,
and I will greatly miss them.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
To be fair, the Pebble watches weren't very smart. They were notification
watches at best. What Google and Apple can do with their watches is leaps and
bounds ahead of what Pebble can do. A bit like comparing the first home Pong
gaming machine to an Atari 2600. I want the flexibility and feature-set of my
Urbane and having it charge it more often to have these features and its
gorgeous screen is more than worth it, at least to me.

~~~
sundvor
True, but I always valued the constantly rendering screen and week long
battery life far higher. If I needed to do something more complex than reply
with an emoticon, after all a high powered, daily charged smartphone with a
+5" screen is always in my pocket or nearby.

Having said that, the stop watch and timer apps, as well as music control all
fit very nicely on the Pebble and I use them all the time.

------
mrlambchop
A while back (~1.5 years), I learnt of a chip being developed that was under
80c in volume, came with BLE, buzzer, touch, flash, ram, built in power
supplies, display and an 80MHz ARM plus included driver circuits for analog,
segment digital and full LCD displays.

The play was "a watch can't afford not to be a smart watch" (from just
vibrations and auto time sync/time zone updates etc... through to full app
platform capability with a touch/LCD display).

I thought this was an obvious end game for smart watches if it got traction.
This chip got canned after a giant semiconductor merger (as I heard it).

------
jlubawy
My two cents on smart watches: If you already wear a watch, and if you
regularly check your phone for notifications, a smart watch is perfect for you
(contingent on price and look). If you never wore a watch before then maybe
not so.

I finally decided to buy a Moto 360 about a year ago, my main reasons for
choosing it:

    
    
       * it looked like a normal watch (has a round face, and I use a minimal digital watch face, I don't like the fake analog ones)
       * at the time it cost about the same as a normal (nice) watch $150, I waited for the 1st gen price to go down from $300
    

It's actually gotten to the point where if I'm not wearing my watch I get that
"naked" feeling as if forgot my phone at home. Wearing the watch makes it way
easier to check messages, and dismiss those which aren't important. The only
time I don't wear it is when running (I think it's too fragile) or at nicer
events like weddings where I'll substitute it for a nice "real" watch (plus I
shouldn't be checking notifications anyway).

Edit: I also have never used the fitness tracker features, I personally don't
see the point of them. Either I went running or exercised that day or I
didn't, I don't think number of steps really or my heart rate tells me more
than I already know. Again, my two cents...

~~~
predakanga
As someone who never wore a watch before I got a Pebble, I have to disagree
with your first statement.

I bought mine (and a subsequent Pebble Time) specifically because I wanted a
less obtrusive way of checking messages and controlling my music, and it's
filled the role superbly.

I don't generally need nor want fitness trackers either, but the accelerometer
does come in handy for use with sleep tracking programs.

------
neals
Why can't they just be a niche company that sells niche products? I like my
pebble and I want(ed) the pebble time 2.

Can a company really not exist without growth? Or do they just don't want to?

~~~
dspillett
_> Can a company really not exist without growth? Or do they just don't want
to?_

Certainly not if you have investors who want competitive returns,
unfortunately.

~~~
icebraining
Or workers that got shares as compensation, at least until you grow enough for
them to cash in.

------
rdl
Aside from knowing the Pebble team (I've been to their office a couple times;
Eric gave me great advice when I was looking at building hardware and doing
Kickstarter), I selfishly hope Pebble Core ships -- I'm not really that into
smartwatches, but the Core is going to be transformative, at least as much as
RPi and Alexa/Echo have been. It might be a great fit with Fitbit.

I would without hesitation bet on the Pebble team on whatever they do next.

~~~
lowglow
What was the advice Eric gave you?

~~~
fudged71
Eric was a great help with our crowdfunding campaign too! Here is what he sent
me as his best advice:

[https://plus.google.com/+PeterHDiamandis/posts/Aoimkh9tnCG](https://plus.google.com/+PeterHDiamandis/posts/Aoimkh9tnCG)
[https://plus.google.com/102564912330648182355/posts/HCR6LMkH...](https://plus.google.com/102564912330648182355/posts/HCR6LMkH6pV)

------
gargravarr
I bought a secondhand Pebble Classic last year. I think they really hit the
sweet spot in the market - the battery life is a key feature for me as I don't
want to be forever charging my watch the same way I charge my smartphone.
Taking it off for an hour to do dishes or something is long enough to charge
it up for a week.

The screen is surprisingly crisp and runs at a high enough frame rate for
animations. And it's always on, so unlike many watches you don't have to move
your wrist at all to wake it up. The vibrating alert is brilliant, and I have
a watch face that buzzes whenever bluetooth disconnects, which has stopped me
leaving home without my phone many times.

I like the square shape of the Classic watch, since it doesn't draw much
attention and can be passed off as just another digital watch. Sure, it looks
a lot cheaper than it actually is, but if you're concerned about your stuff
being stolen, this is a great thing.

I like the Pebble most because it does what a smartwatch should do, which is
extend the smartphone - it doesn't try to be a phone on its own. The hardware
is great. The haptic motor failed after about a year, but the watch wasn't new
when I bought it, and when I enquired about repairs, Pebble replaced the whole
watch free of charge.

I'm very impressed with Pebble as a company and as a product, so I'm really
disappointed and concerned about their future reading this article. For Fitbit
to basically buy up Pebble for their software and patents smacks of gutting
the company and discarding the shell. By discontinuing the watch itself,
they're probably going at it backwards. I've had more problems with the
software and the watch faces than I've ever had with the hardware - part of
this was down to Android, but the Pebble app store used to be hideous even on
a top-model phone. As ever, excellent hardware, abysmal software, but it's
only the software that people (particularly other companies) care about. I'll
be sad if Fitbit do follow through with their plans as detailed here.

------
gnicholas
As a Pebble customer (have a Time Steel, waiting on a Time Steel 2), I'm
disappointed to hear this. I'd like to think that there will be synergies
here, and that Fitbit will use Pebble's IP to build in the many great Pebble
features.

Unfortunately, I've heard so many reliability complaints about Fitbits. So
even if we get the best of both worlds in terms of features, I doubt the new
products will be as reliable as Pebbles have been. It's not like Fitbit is
going to retool their manufacturing process based on the know-how of the much-
smaller company they're acquiring.

------
Negative1
So the thing surprising about this is that Fitbit's stock just took a
nosedive, their financials are questionable (but maybe the holidays will be
good to them again) and they're acquiring a company in a market where there is
a clear leader (Apple) but as whole, the market itself appears to have hit a
peak or is in decline.

Even if they got a steal the whole things seems like a bizarre move. At best
they integrate Pebble into their lineup, get some good brain power in SV (they
are HQed in MA I believe) and build out their future products with Pebble's
finely tuned developer ecosystem (their opensource SDK is amazing). At worst,
they go down in flames and in the fire sale they fetch a little more for
owning Pebble IP.

~~~
fragmede
> and they're acquiring a company in a market where there is a clear leader
> (Apple)

If you have to spell it out, they might not be the clear leader. The Apple
watch is missing a glaring feature - compatibility with Android phones
(Android Wear has the reverse issue). That _alone_ makes it the Apple watch a
non-starter for a large number of people with smartphones, and "people with
smartphones" is the target market. Fitbit and Pebble are the biggest two
smartphone OS-independent smartwatch producers that spring to my mind.

~~~
tf2manu994
Android Wear works with iPhones, Apple watch does not work with Android

------
erikb
I had a Fitbit before and therefore had a chance ot compare it with Pebble.
Pebble was superior in nearly every way. Therefore it seems too low a price in
my eyes.

~~~
em_te
Or Fitbit was too expensive for what they were offering. The only thing Fitbit
had going was brand recognition.

------
andrewtbham
Pebble is a company I would have invested in if I were a VC. It seemed like
such a great idea. Didn't they raise $10 million on kickstarter? what went
wrong?

~~~
taneq
They fell victim to their own early success. The huge reception for their
original smartwatch lead to them expanding massively and trying to pump out a
new model every six months. If they'd been content with being a $10million
company, they'd still be happily trucking along.

~~~
Hydraulix989
That's not something that VCs want their portfolio companies to settle for. If
you would have invested, you wouldn't have seen much of a return at all if
they would have been content with staying a $10M company (which is only a TAD
more than the valuation that most YC companies have when they raise their Demo
Day seed rounds).

~~~
taneq
Yeah, I definitely understand why VCs would be pushing them to expand fast. I
mean, that's basically the name of the game for VCs; pick a startup, pump them
full of cash, push them to scale as fast as possible, and hope they turn into
a unicorn.

What's in the best interests of the VC isn't always in the best interests of
the company, however, and in this case I think the VC influence was toxic. If
they'd stayed small and kept sustainable (remember, their original kickstarter
alone pretty much had them funded) then they would still be around.

~~~
Hydraulix989
> "What's in the best interests of the VC isn't always in the best interests
> of the company"

Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree with you there, just pointing out the
reality of the situation!

------
odiroot
This is terrible news. I'm a happy owner of Pebble Time and was just waiting
for PT2 to hit the stores.

Now it's probably not going to happen.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Same here, except I backed PT2 on KickStarter. I'm not having high hopes I'll
receive it now.

~~~
foxylion
Same for me, didn't see that coming.

------
proee
In hindsight, what would have been the best path for Pebble? Did they grow too
quickly, too fast?

Seems they have a really great product and team.

~~~
untog
> Did they grow too quickly, too fast?

...surely those are the same thing? And I'd argue it's quite the reverse -
Pebble were one of the first smartwatches out in the market but they never
managed to capitalize on that lead. I suspect their fate was sealed the day
the Apple Watch was released.

~~~
taneq
But there was nowhere to grow. Smartwatches have always been a niche product
for people who like gizmos. If Pebble had stayed small and focused on their
original "watch with apps" market instead of chasing the "phone on your wrist"
market it'd still be business as usual.

~~~
Hydraulix989
When you raise a big chunk of institutional money though from VCs, the
pressure is to grow fast and capture as much market share as possible though.

There was definitely a lot of sense behind the bet that they made.

------
tekromancr
I have an outstanding kickstarter order for their Pebble Core, which I really
think was an interesting step to a post-phone world. It's a real shame. I love
the platform, the devices, and the dev community. I hope they will be able to
fulfill orders with the funds, but I imagine that it's pretty low on the
priority list for fitbit.

~~~
rtpg
The Core is really a unique device. A small computer with 3G that fits
anywhere. a logical extension of the RasPi.

Still looking forwards to mine

~~~
sumitgt
Even if they ship the Pebble Core, would it become a paper weight if the
platform is canned?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Pebble Core has a chance to survive as long as the hardware specs are
released, because it's supposed to run vanilla, pure Android 5.

------
toodlebunions
I can see why Pebble would sell, can't see why Fitbit would buy. What am I
missing?

~~~
dovdovdov
Fitbit offers crap in the $100 tier,

Pebble offers a smartwatch with a heart rate monitor.

They didn't want competition in the low price tier, that's it.

Pebble was also dying, hence they snatched them cheap.

~~~
mattsouth
I have experience of fitbit and pebble and of the two I much prefer pebble.
But I guess success is not always about the quality of the product.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Success is rarely about quality of product these days. What matters is
marketing efforts and, with startups, playing the VC game well.

------
Raed667
I was on the market for a smart-watch recently.

I didn't get one because we basically have 3 options:

\- Super expensive (more than a smart-phone), 'full-featured" models.

\- Mid-range, not-that-useful models.

\- Crappy and cheap Chinese products

Needless to say I didn't buy a smart-watch. And I feel that this is the same
experience a lot of people around me are having.

~~~
detaro
I'm curious, what were the "mid-range, not-that-useful" models (which I assume
includes the Pebble) missing for you?

~~~
drewg123
I'm not the parent, but I'm in the market for a new fitness based smartwatch
to use with an Android phone. To date, I've had

\- MS Band and MS Band 2:

    
    
       + HRM, GPS,  Always-connected Bluetooth usable for Android Smart Unlock. Decent Web interface for fitness tracking. Syncing more-or-less works.  Build-in sleep tracking.  Decent screen.
    
       - Mediocre battery life (24-36 hrs).   Touch-to-see screen (or < 24hrs battery life with always-on setting).  Is now abandoned.  No music storage on watch, so I need to carry my phone.
    

\- Moto360 sport

    
    
       + HRM, GPS. Android Wear always connected, so Android Smart Unlock works. Music on watch, so I can run w/o phone.  Always on screen.
    
       - Horrendous battery life (12-18hrs), MotoBody is a dumpster fire.   There is no web interface, and the calorie tracking is inconsistent.   I can do the same 6 mile run in the same time with the same average heart rate, and one day it will say I've burned 350 Kcal and the next day it will say 1100Kcal.   And Google Fit is even worse.   There is effectively no sleep tracking, since the battery will be dead by the end of the day.
    
    

I've ruled out the fitbits because they do some funky bluetooth thing which is
not usable for Android Smart Unlock, and because they don't offer a model with
HRM, GPS and BT Music playback (AFAICT). Even if I could forgive that, my wife
has a Charge HR, and she has horrible issues with sync.

I was thinking about a Pebble Core + Pebble Time 2. The core would be an added
device to carry in order to get GPS and music, but it is at least smaller than
my Nexus 6p. I wonder what will happen with the core now that they've been
acquired.

I was also thinking about the Polar M600. But the Moto360 has scared me off a
bit from AndroidWear, so I've been waiting for my Band2 to die.

------
nicwest
I bought one of the blackberry only models from their show HN post way back
when [1]. Glad to see they made it this far.

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2221579](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2221579)

------
captainmuon
The smart move would be to continue Pebble as a brand - Fitbit Pebble. From a
pure business perspective, they wouldn't even have to continue the platform,
just slap Pebble on some Fitbits with a display. But I hope they do continue
the Pebble hardware, and maybe improve it with their manufacturing
capabilities and economies of scale.

One other good asset they are buying is the OS, I believe Fitbit has nothing
similar and it could be adopted for higher-level Fitbits (more smartwatch-
like). And maybe the Stone can be reworked into a Fitbit product.

But realistically, this is just them stomping out the competition.

~~~
rainforest
I'm not so optimistic. FitBit's business model is to distinguish price bands
by software features like printer manufacturers. Pebble's is to provide the
same experience, enhanced by better hardware to everyone. Pebble still do this
at a pricepoint near the entry-level FitBits.

I can't imagine FitBit wanting to continue to keep a competitor that would let
third parties de-value the premium features with an open SDK.

~~~
sulam
Err? Fwiw we put every feature we can in every device we can. There are often
hardware limitations and of course we care about margins so there is hardware
we could put on a cheaper band, but then it wouldn't be a cheaper band.

Once you get past hardware, almost all of our software feature decisions come
down to battery life. The cheaper bands are smaller, and have smaller
batteries, and compromising on battery life wouldn't serve our customers very
well.

~~~
FireBeyond
Speaking of "cheaper bands" I don't think you could get a much cheaper band
than on the Charge HR.

As evinced by myself and many people in this thread alone, you'd better buy
yourself some Gorilla Glue if you're buying a Charge HR, because the band is
useless, to the point of being "not fit for purpose". Not that FitBit will
accept a return, of course...

"We can give you 25% off a new FitBit!" hahaha. No. I'll lament my purchase,
apply more glue to keep the band even slightly attached, until it finally
gives up the ghost, and then I'll never buy another FitBit product again.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=charge+hr+band+broken](https://www.google.com/search?q=charge+hr+band+broken)

~~~
sulam
I'm curious, because my friends routinely tell me stories about how easy our
returns are. I had someone I had just met tell me that they accidentally drove
their car over their device and we shipped them a new one, even after they
told us that.

What are the circumstances for yours? Maybe with the Charge 2 out they're
offering you 25% off that?

------
graycrow
Bad news. I backed them on all their Kickstarter campaigns and like my current
Pebble Time mainly because of notifications, non-disturbing alarms, battery
life and for the fact it pushes me to walk more.

------
staticelf
I have a fitbit charge HR and I've had it for some time now.. it is kind of
good but since they updated the software about a year ago it has been really
buggy. For example, if the battery runs out I have to reset my fitbit and
reinstall it.

It wouldn't sync at all for a couple of months (loads of people had this
problem) so neither me or my gf used it for that period of time.

The app isn't that good and I STILL have syncing issues. For example, I cannot
set a new timer on my fitbit which sucks.

Next time I will probably buy stuff from Withings or something else.

------
Illniyar
" UPDATE – Pebble’s official Twitter account seems to confirm the news.

    
    
        ¯_(ツ)_/¯
    
        — Pebble (@Pebble) December 1, 2016

"

how is that tweet confirming the news? am I missing something?

~~~
andars
The timing is everything. I read it as a "whatever" in response to the news.

Note that that tweet has since been deleted and so it probably shouldn't be
considered an official statement of the company. My guess is that the employee
in charge of the twitter account did a bit of a 'yolo'.

------
crivabene
In case they get acquired and the product line gets shut down, do you believe
there's a chance that the community would be able to keep the devices alive
working on alternative firmwares?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Maybe - at least until the hardware inevitably fails. With FitBit buying the
IP, I don't expect the community to get any help with keeping the devices
alive.

Fuck it, we need an open source / open hardware Pebble clone.

------
jscheel
This absolutely friggin sucks. I love my pebble, and I have no faith in fitbit
at all. I'm sure they will shut down the product and throw the team on the
next useless activity tracker.

------
fencepost
They may be shutting down the product lines, but I wouldn't be surprised to
see some elements of it come out in future Fitbit products. One of the
differentiating elements between Fitbit and Garmin is the Garmin ConnectIQ
ecosystem - it's not smartwatch apps, it's apps and customizations that run on
not-dumb watches that also have battery life measured in full days not
fractions of a day.

------
twblalock
I think it's unlikely that Fitbit will do well over the next few years. They
sell in markets where the hardware is commoditized, just like GoPro. Razor-
thin profit margins and increasingly interchangeable competing products are
the future of that industry.

I guess this is an acquihire, which is fine, because Pebble was selling in a
commoditized market and didn't have much of a future either.

------
_RPM
If only Fitbit's products had a longer lasting battery. I bought the Charge HR
and it lasts for maybe 3 days.

------
fudgy73
Bad news. The main reason I wouldn't even consider a Fitbit was because the
data is locked in the Fitbit 'ecosystem' and there is no Google Fit
integration. Pebble was the opposite. An open platform for people to use and
tinker with. You will be missed, Pebble.

------
readhn
740mil for a watch product - should have taken it and maybe stayed on in
technical role. Not very smart move on CEOs part. Partnership with citizen
would have been beneficial to both companies. 740mil.... FB glory clearly
fogged many founders minds...

------
ramoq
Interesting part here is: "...the acquisition is a “small amount” but there’s
no word on exactly how much, or indeed how little. Further, The Information
said that the deal will see Pebble and its products closed down over time..."

~~~
vortexo
"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 barely covering
their debts. __"

~~~
jaclaz
To be fair, also:

>Fitbit, too, has experienced its own challenges. The company priced its
shares at $50 a go when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, but
today it is trading at $8.40. That depression is largely down to less-than-
impressive financial results.

It seems like the values atributed to these companies/assets are random
numbers.

I can understand that in technology related companies even a strong
appreciation (or depreciation) is possible in a short period of time, but
there must have been some initial overestimation in these cases.

------
eltoozero
I could pay for coffee and 2FA my googles like a boss on my Pebble.

On the Apple Watch it's a chore, but as a fashion accessory it's no
comparison.

Plus both my pebbles developed screen issues, shame Apple drank their
milkshake.

~~~
nunez
It's way easier to do both of those things on an Apple Watch.

Starbucks POS's accept Apple Pay; invoking it on the Watch is really easy
(double tap the side button; hold near screen). Authy 2FA works well on the
Watch as well; app-based 2FA like LastPass Authenticator and Okta work
EXTREMELY well on it (better than the Pebble, at least on iOS). Google app 2FA
sucks on iOS; I'm assuming it's better on Android.

------
bert2002
Oh nooo I hope they are not closing down the products of pebble to fast. I
like the Pebble Time a lot more then my Moto 360 that I had before.

------
kapkapkap
The article says that Pebble was offered $750M by Citizen in 2015. Is that
realistic considering Citizen's market cap is (only) $2B ?

~~~
mi100hael
Their market cap is more like $235B

[https://www.google.com/finance?q=TYO%3A7762&ei=2kdAWJHcJc_Be...](https://www.google.com/finance?q=TYO%3A7762&ei=2kdAWJHcJc_BeuKspbAL)

Edit: oops, that's JPY, not USD.

~~~
kapkapkap
No, that is $235B in JPY. It converts to $1.9B USD.

------
lesdeuxmagots
It feels like a bit of an echo chamber in here.

From what I can tell, outside of the extremely tech-centric realms of society,
smartwatches like pebble will not find any success.

Watches are both a utility device, as well as a fashion accessory. For most
people, it has become mostly a fashion accessory first, a utility device
second. Pebbles really don't look fashionable to most people, both on style,
and on brand perception. People will put up with a bit of questionable styling
if the brand signaling is good enough, but the reality is, the vast majority
of people will not recognize a pebble, and instead will just see a not very
stylish device on your wrist. As a fashion accessory, the pebble fails
incredibly, and to build a scalable standalone watch company around watches
which don't pass as fashion accessories is just a recipe for failure. Even the
pebble steel isn't good enough.

So while people claim that the idea is good, the product is good, my opinion
is that the product fails to do what most consumers actually need it to do.
Sure, it had a big presence on paper because it was one of the first to bring
the concept of smart watches to many people on kickstarter, but like that
cooler which had a boom box, charging ports, and a blender, sometimes what
gets people excited when they first see an idea online, doesn't actually
translate to a product that fits their actual needs.

I think this may be why almost all the smartwatches are transitioning to
fitness tracking as the main feature - the idea of what a fitness tracker is,
looks like, and signals is very different from a smartwatch. Additionally,
it's helpful that fitness tracking is actually a utility that generally can't
be done well in other devices (smartphones).

~~~
jdormit
Have you seen Fossil's smartwatch line[0]? Quite stylish, in my opinion.

[0] [https://www.fossil.com/us/en/wearable-
technology.html?gclid=...](https://www.fossil.com/us/en/wearable-
technology.html?gclid=CjwKEAiAjvrBBRDxm_nRusW3q1QSJAAzRI1tJjXa6fc3asdJMmiQ3l3fRl7dlxmO6wdkV6B79b9dlBoC4M7w_wcB&cid=pds:conv:google:TM%3ASmartwatches%7CExact%3AGN:fossil%20smartwatch&s_kwcid=AL!4524!3!123457413488!e!!g!!fossil%20smartwatch&ef_id=WD@6LQAABFc26hUN:20161201055037:s)

~~~
hbosch
But at the end of the day, it's still a Fossil.

I don't mean to disparage the company, but in the watch world a Fossil (or
Timex, Nixon, Citizen) will never be worth a glance. This is a market where
low-end examples cost as much as a Honda.

~~~
usrusr
Upvoted because it serves as a very helpful illustration of how awfully
disconnected subcultures can be.

------
desireco42
Does this mean Pebble watches will stop working? I wouldn't mind buying Pebble
now, especially if they discount it, and use it. If I get 2 yrs out of it, it
will be more then enough.

I use to have Basis Peak and was super happy with it, but they shut it down
and told us it will stop working, so I had to return it.

~~~
TeMPOraL
They should still work, but we can pretty much forget about firmware updates
and phone app updates. The latter is a problem, because when the new
generation of phones comes out and suddenly they can't talk to your watch,
there ain't gonna be anyone to fix it.

Yes, there is Gadgetbridge, but I doubt they have enough manpower to keep
compatibility with every new phone/OS version out there.

------
mevile
Noo! This makes me so sad. I love my Pebble Time. Fitbit :( I don't want to
own a FitBit. People should be snapping these watches up they make your life
better. For example: no more ringing phones. No more pulling phones out of
pockets. Sleep tracking. Tracks activity...

------
mafuyu
As a Fitbit employee and a huge Pebble fan, I feel conflicted... I hope the
fantastic engineering put into the Pebble OS and hardware will be put to good
use.

------
aamederen
and there is mi band, which seems like a perfect balance of simplicity, ease
of use, functionality (step counter, heartrate sensor, time) and price.

~~~
pawadu
+1 for the mi band! I think for me the version with the small display is the
perfect smart watch:

[http://www.mi.com/en/miband2/](http://www.mi.com/en/miband2/)

It has basically all I need (30+ days battery life, display time, step and
distance counter) plus very few stuff I don't need that can be turned off
easily (notifications, wake up alarm, heart rate monitor, ios and android
app).

It is also fairly cheap at $25-35, but look out for the fake ones on ebay!

------
m-p-3
FUCK, not this way..

~~~
TeMPOraL
My thoughts exactly. This whole situation feels like a very bad joke.

------
franciscop
I was waiting for my Pebble Time 2 from Kickstarter, but seeing the comments
there I guess I'll never get it

------
tscs37
Bit of weird news.

/r/pebble posted an archive of _mostly all_ Pebble Apps though, which is kinda
neat.

------
elsurudo
Wow, just $40mil? Does anyone know what went wrong? As a fellow UW alum, this
makes me sad.

------
megablast
What is the point of buying them to shut them down? How does that make any
sense?

------
banhfun
I imagined Pebble being worth more.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I suppose either the brand or the whole smartwatch market is in pretty bad
shape.

