After weeks of speculation, the inevitable has happened: Pebble is officially shutting down. The official announcement has been made and true enough, FitBit has acquired the software side of the company and some of the engineers and developers from Pebble will be joining the wearable company. But in essence, the smartwatch company will be ceasing the promotion, manufacturing and selling of all their devices. It is a sad day when one of the pioneers of the industry are calling it a day.
The CEO and founder of Pebble, Eric Migicovsky, wrote an official letter to all their users and he stated all the next steps that they will have to know about the end of the company and how it will affect them moving forward. The previously bought devices will of course continue to function normally, but since there will be no more updates and new features, the functionality and service quality will of course be “reduced in the future”. They will also not be accepting orders on the official online store but you can still find replacement cables and accessories like bands, skins from Amazon.com and third-party retailers.
As for those who backed the new product like Pebble 2, Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core, if they have not received their products by now, they will be receiving a full refund within 4-8 weeks. They don’t need to do anything but just wait for the chargeback to the credit cards. If you were returning a Pebble device and the transaction was completed before December 7, you will receive a refund as well. If you purchased a smartwatch at a retail store, you’ll be able to exchange it, depending on the store’s return policy of course.
Warranties will no longer apply but you can still get troubleshooting information from the website. Migicovsky also talked about how some members of the Pebble team will be moving on to Team FitBit and they will be “making awesome happen” in the wearable company as they bring their expertise and years of learning in the industry. Thank you Pebble, you will definitely be missed.
SOURCE: Pebble
