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Fitbit to buy Pebble


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Old 02-12-2016, 09:20
JasonWatkins
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https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/30/fitbit-pebble/

Seems fairly inevitable as it stands. I hope they don't phase out the watches as i'd be lost without my pebble time

It does seem to be a consequence of the overall slowdown in smartwatch sales though so I think for the Pebble team it's probably the best solution for them to be taken over.

The sad thing is, it'll likely push the Apple Watch further ahead as "the" smartwatch for those who want one.
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Old 02-12-2016, 09:30
biggyt
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Seems fairly inevitable as it stands. I hope they don't phase out the watches as i'd be lost without my pebble time
Me too, my strap broke so I had to wear a normal non-smart watch for a couple of days and that was bad enough!
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Old 02-12-2016, 13:43
JasonWatkins
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Me too, my strap broke so I had to wear a normal non-smart watch for a couple of days and that was bad enough!
Tell me about it - same happened to me earlier in the year. The sheer convenience aspect of it is fantastic. I kept finding myself pressing the buttons on my 'regular' watch to skip the music forward on my iPhone

I think the way the pebbles have been designed, they'll likely last some time and won't be obsoleted by continual updates and tweaks like most apple products, so I think the only issue going forward will likely end up being battery replacement.

I'd hate to be in a position to have to get another smart watch and the apple watch is my only option.
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Old 02-12-2016, 14:22
Stig
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I think the way the pebbles have been designed, they'll likely last some time and won't be obsoleted by continual updates and tweaks like most apple products, so I think the only issue going forward will likely end up being battery replacement.
Are you kidding? If I had to guess whether an Apple Watch, Android Wear or Pebble is likely to be still working and supported in 3 years time, I think I would put Apple at the top of that list.
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Old 02-12-2016, 14:45
JasonWatkins
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Are you kidding?
I'm really not ..

If I had to guess whether an Apple Watch, Android Wear or Pebble is likely to be still working and supported in 3 years time, I think I would put Apple at the top of that list.
I've had my Pebble Time for about a year now without a single issue. Battery life is a solid week and I can't see it giving up the ghost any time soon.

As far as ongoing support goes, then I think it's fairly obvious to say that the support for the pebble will likely die when the takeover is complete, but i'm at least hopeful they'll offer battery replacement for existing owners if need be.

Again, it's fairly obvious that the apple watch will continue long in to the future unless it becomes too much of a loss maker for them with the global slowdown in smart watch sales.
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Old 02-12-2016, 16:14
Stig
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I'm really not ..



I've had my Pebble Time for about a year now without a single issue. Battery life is a solid week and I can't see it giving up the ghost any time soon.

As far as ongoing support goes, then I think it's fairly obvious to say that the support for the pebble will likely die when the takeover is complete, but i'm at least hopeful they'll offer battery replacement for existing owners if need be.

Again, it's fairly obvious that the apple watch will continue long in to the future unless it becomes too much of a loss maker for them with the global slowdown in smart watch sales.
So you're saying that your Pebble will be dropped and the Apple Watch will be supported. I agree with that.

The 'global slowdown' in smart watches is a bit misleading, as the last survey was taken just before the release of the Apple Watch series 2 and Apple has over 50% market share.
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Old 02-12-2016, 16:55
JasonWatkins
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So you're saying that your Pebble will be dropped and the Apple Watch will be supported. I agree with that.

The 'global slowdown' in smart watches is a bit misleading, as the last survey was taken just before the release of the Apple Watch series 2 and Apple has over 50% market share.
They may well have over 50% of the market share in smartwatches but how big is the actual market itself across all brands and all makes ?

Everything i've seen and read so far does seem to indicate that it isn't that huge.
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Old 02-12-2016, 20:59
Pucky
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I'm really not ..
I've had my Pebble Time for about a year now without a single issue. Battery life is a solid week and I can't see it giving up the ghost any time soon.
I've had one for about a year and never had a week out of it! At the moment I'm charging every other day - think I might need a new battery?
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Old 03-12-2016, 00:43
JasonWatkins
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I've had one for about a year and never had a week out of it! At the moment I'm charging every other day - think I might need a new battery?
How do you use it ?

(And don't say "as a watch" )
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Old 03-12-2016, 11:50
Pucky
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How do you use it ?

(And don't say "as a watch" )
Connected to the phone so get notifications etc. I've never had a week out of it though but it lasted longer than this. I'm actually looking at the new Samsung Gear S3 to replace it with

Not having much luck with stuff at the moment as it looks like my S7 Edge battery is knackered too!
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Old 03-12-2016, 12:21
JasonWatkins
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Connected to the phone so get notifications etc. I've never had a week out of it though but it lasted longer than this. I'm actually looking at the new Samsung Gear S3 to replace it with

Not having much luck with stuff at the moment as it looks like my S7 Edge battery is knackered too!
Do you use apps on it though? Or literally just as a notification device?

The watchface also has an impact as well. If it's animated and does a lot, it'll cane the battery.

I've had the Tablo watchface installed on mine for months now as i haven't found another one i've like as much and that's just three lines of text with three coloured backgrounds.
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Old 03-12-2016, 14:49
Pucky
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Do you use apps on it though? Or literally just as a notification device?

The watchface also has an impact as well. If it's animated and does a lot, it'll cane the battery.

I've had the Tablo watchface installed on mine for months now as i haven't found another one i've like as much and that's just three lines of text with three coloured backgrounds.
No, it's literally a notification device. I don't even have a custom watchface, use the default one as I like it! I will contact them to see what they say about it
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Old 03-12-2016, 15:31
JasonWatkins
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No, it's literally a notification device. I don't even have a custom watchface, use the default one as I like it! I will contact them to see what they say about it
It does sound like the battery is duff if you're charging it every few days in that case. Hopefully they'll sort you out with another one.
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Old 07-12-2016, 19:07
JasonWatkins
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Well it's happened - the deal closed today apparently and Pebble have now confirmed they've ceased all production of Pebble devices.

https://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/

The worrying thing is that the announcement has this statement ..

Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future.
I'd certainly like to find out what this means exactly. Will they be effectively making the watches "non smart" so that they can continue to function indefinitely with only basic apps or watchface support ?
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Old 07-12-2016, 22:34
Roush
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They've said on their dev blog that the cloud services will be phased out so I would expect only basic local functionality in the long run.
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Old 07-12-2016, 23:12
JasonWatkins
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They've said on their dev blog that the cloud services will be phased out so I would expect only basic local functionality in the long run.
That would make the most sense I think. Unless they have plans to effectively hobble all existing watches, which I think could potentially be a P.R. disaster, it would be logical to essentially make them 'self sufficient'.

As long as that happens, I suppose i'd actually be quite happy because I only really tend to use mine as a notification device as well as a controller for my iPhone's music player.

It could probably put paid to custom watchfaces, which would be a shame, but i guess we'll have to see.
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Old 08-12-2016, 00:59
mred2000
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What a bummer... Quite a sorry situation, this. Unless you're Fitbit.

Another sticky point about this latest announcement:

"Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches."

Boom. Just like that. Out with a whimper.
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Old 08-12-2016, 10:15
JasonWatkins
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I think it's a shame the pebble time 2 has been cancelled. it looked very nice - bigger screen for one thing. i also think they put the time steel battery in it as well which apparently averages out to around 10 days of use which would have been great.

it does appear that the hardware may well be sold on to anyone interested though so the pebble watches might actually survive.
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Old 08-12-2016, 11:00
clonmult
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What a bummer... Quite a sorry situation, this. Unless you're Fitbit.

Another sticky point about this latest announcement:

"Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches."

Boom. Just like that. Out with a whimper.
I'm effectively on both - I have a fitbit blaze, my son has recently bought a pebble classic. And i'm probably going to buy a pebble classic just because its such a damn cool device (and it really isn't that expensive either - less than £50).

The fitbits are generally fairly good for activity tracking, but they aren't smart watches. The pebbles aren't great for activity tracking (only the pebble 2 has a hrm), but are excellent smartwatches.

I do wonder if this means that Fitbit are intending to get properly into smartwatches.
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Old 08-12-2016, 11:03
clonmult
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That would make the most sense I think. Unless they have plans to effectively hobble all existing watches, which I think could potentially be a P.R. disaster, it would be logical to essentially make them 'self sufficient'.

As long as that happens, I suppose i'd actually be quite happy because I only really tend to use mine as a notification device as well as a controller for my iPhone's music player.

It could probably put paid to custom watchfaces, which would be a shame, but i guess we'll have to see.
My son bought his for the range of watch faces and games. They have to find some way of keeping them self sufficient, have the apps stored locally on your phone, rather than relying on the web services.
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Old 08-12-2016, 12:21
JasonWatkins
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My son bought his for the range of watch faces and games. They have to find some way of keeping them self sufficient, have the apps stored locally on your phone, rather than relying on the web services.
I've been reading the developer blog post on the pebble site and they've said that "where possible" they want to let the community take over so i suspect that one of the main things they'll do is go back to the early days where you could manually download apps as ".pbw" files and then sideload them to the watch.

I guess whatever they do though, unless they're going to provide an ongoing facility to replace batteries then it might not be good enough because once the battery goes, the watch becomes worthless
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Old 10-12-2016, 22:27
JasonWatkins
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Found this reddit from someone who claims to be part of the pebble team. actually quite reassuring for the future ..

Here's how I framed things to a Pebbler who DMed me this week:
No one on either side of this newly-meshed team is trying to actively sunset the Pebble experience. Think of it as a car that just got a tuneup (FW 4.3), but no scheduled maintenance is going to happen super-regularly from here on out.
At this juncture that's where we're at. I'm not sure why people are assuming Fitbit is actively going to brick active Pebbles, because that's not the plan, nor does it help our goal of getting the Pebble community excited for future Fitbit experiences with Pebble's DNA ingrained into them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comm...l1&sh=a0416992
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Old 11-12-2016, 12:20
Pucky
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I'm disappointed as I loved my Pebble and was looking to buy a new one after Christmas. However I've just seen the Gear S3 so will be hoping for a deal in the January Sales.
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Old 12-12-2016, 08:30
clonmult
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Found this reddit from someone who claims to be part of the pebble team. actually quite reassuring for the future ..



https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comm...l1&sh=a0416992
That is rather good to see - the pebble range is still clearly the best overall smartwatch available.

And doubly handy, as I just found out that my much better half just bought me a pebble 2 for christmas (they're rather difficult to get hold of, but she managed it).
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Old 12-12-2016, 08:52
JasonWatkins
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That is rather good to see - the pebble range is still clearly the best overall smartwatch available.

And doubly handy, as I just found out that my much better half just bought me a pebble 2 for christmas (they're rather difficult to get hold of, but she managed it).
The Pebble 2's look quite nice actually, so special treats for your better half i think

I really had my heart set on the Pebble Time 2 as that looked great. I'm hoping against hope that someone wants to pick up the hardware to do something with it and release it, but i doubt that'll ever happen really.
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