In a move that has been anticipated for a while, Fitbit today announced that they’ve acquired Pebble. The maker of what was arguably one of the first popular smartwatches, Pebble simultaneously revealed that they are winding down all hardware operations effective immediately.Fitbit has announced that the acquisition will bring onboard a lot of software assets that will enable it to further platform development in the heath & fitness categories of wearables. This is a sharp departure from Pebble’s focus as an approachable and a more well rounded smart watch. Reports suggest that Fitbit has retained 40% of Pebble’s employee base comprising mostly of software engineers.
Meanwhile, Pebble took it upon themselves to announce their acquisition and the way forward for current customers. Since Pebble will no longer be promoting, manufacturing or selling devices, it won’t be possible to buy a new Pebble smartwatch from the official website and store. Third party accessories will however continue to be available. Rather surprisingly, the company has announced that effective immediately it will no longer offer warranty support. Additionally, all orders for the upcoming Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core stand cancelled. The company states that their work will continue to live on over at Fitbit through their developer community but we’ll just have to wait a couple of quarters to see what comes of this acquisition.