Ok, so i was in the process of reviewing the Pebble 2 Watch but then news came out that Pebble is now dead. News has come out that Fitbit will be acquiring “key pebble assets” like “intellectual property”, “software engineers”, and “testers”. If you routinely watch shark tank like i do then you know this is called an acuihire. But what does this mean for you? Well ill tell you!
If you recently bought any pebble product i highly advise you go back and return it. If you can no longer return your pebble smartwatch then you should know pebble has let you out in the cold. Pebble’s blog post talking about the buy out states “One-to-one Pebble support is no longer available” and “any Pebble currently out in the wild is no longer covered by or eligible for warranty exchange.” This means, your pebble is no longer under warranty, it also means pebble will no longer be putting out any software updates for any current products. You're stuck with what you have.
After inspecting pebble’s site, you can clearly see they are no longer selling any products and thats the right thing to do. But other retail stores like Amazon, Bestbuy, Target, and Walmartare still selling pebble devices. I highly advise you don't buy any of these watches.
Fitbit Product Reviews
Fitbit Charge 2 Review
Fitbit Flex 2 Review
Pebble was once the poster child for kickstarter, a crowdfunded start up that actually delivered on its promises. Since Pebble is no longer shipping products, Pebble 2 Backers who still haven't received their watch wont be getting one. The Time 2, Core, and Time Round, which were originally intended to ship last month and later scheduled to ship in January 2017, are completely canceled. Pebble did state that backers who haven't received their watches will be given a refund, but aren't expected to fulfill those refunds until March 2017. Come on Pebble, thats just grimy! At least pay those people some interest. If you backed the Pebble 2 let me know how you feel in the comments Im genuinely interested.
But Pebble dying isn't a big blow to the fitness tracker industry, and you shouldn't be mad at Fitbit for killing them. To be honest, while I was working on my Pebble 2 review, I couldn't help but to compare it to the Fitbit Charge 2. Sure the Pebble 2 has a 7 day battery life, is water resistant to 30 meters, had a much larger screen and was $130 dollars compared to the $150 the Charge 2 goes for. But the build quality, software, and user interface were all sub par at best compared to other fitness trackers. And I know more competition in the market places means innovation, but how much competition was pebble really putting up in the first place?
So if you were thinking about picking up a Pebble 2 or any other pebble product for yourself or as a gift I highly advise you refrain from buying anything from pebble at this point. If you are truly interested in buying a fitness tracker for your self or someone else then I highly recommend you checkout the the Fitbit Charge 2 or Fitbit Flex 2. Links To their Reviews are in the description. If you recently bought a pebble watch then I say you return it ASAP i know I am.