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That's not quite what happened. Pebble was virtually dead and shopping around for an exit. Fitbit bought Pebble for its IP (i.e. patents) / soft acquihire. No o
by sushid 4y ago
That's not quite what happened. Pebble was virtually dead and shopping around for an exit. Fitbit bought Pebble for its IP (i.e. patents) / soft acquihire. No one was going to be making the Pebble 3.
- arcbyte 4y agoAs i recollect it, they had been launching product after product and were in the middle of launching pebble time 2 when they got bought. That's a far cry from "virtually dead"
- sushid 4y agoAgain, that's not quite true. They had barely managed to eke out the Pebble 2 the month prior but had been in distress for quite some time. They had a huge layoff earlier that year as well and were forced to raise a debt funding round sometime that year as well. The market was doing well but the CEO commented about how hard it was for hardware companies to raise funds, especially as hardware companies were getting crushed in the market. The truth is Apple came in and ate everyone lunch. Pebble was effectively dead the moment Apple announced their plans for a smartwatch.
- cush 4y agoIt's exactly what happened. Fitbit bought (true) then destroyed the Pebble IP (true). Whether Pebble was a strong business or not makes no difference. Their tech was incredible and still better than most smart watches on the market today.
- sushid 4y agoPebble's IP was done for. No one wanted to make any more Pebbles including Pebble themself. They were acquihired by Fitbit. It wasn't a case of "we'll continue allowing team X to operate independently bait and switch." At the end of the day there wasn't a robust market for hacker-focused e-ink Android watches.