Pebble is reportedly canceling the launch of Time 2 and Core and offering refunds to early backers on Kickstarter. Pebble recently started shipping Pebble 2 but Time 2 and Pebble Core will never reach any wrist. The move comes in the wake Fitbit's reported acquisition of Pebble.
Fitbit is reportedly acquiring only the software assets of Pebble, which gives its access to latter's software engineers and testers to better compete with Apple. The acquisition price is pegged at $40 million and Fitbit will gain access to Pebble watch's operating system, app ecosystem and cloud services. According to Bloomberg, Pebble's assets including product inventory and server equipment will be sold off separately and Fitbit will only get intellectual properties.
Wearable industry is buzzing with a decent growth in sales despite smartwatch sales declining over 50 percent in the same quarter. Fitbit continues to lead the market with a share of nearly 24 percent while Apple is struggling to put its Watch on the wrist of more people. According to IDC, Apple registered a decline of 71 percent in sales during Q3 and managed to ship just 1.1 million units.
Apple Watch sales have been lacklustre but company CEO responded saying the sales are "off the charts."
Fitbit, arguably the most competitive wearable brand has seen its own struggles in the space where there is little enthusiasm from consumers. Bloomberg reports that Pebble CEO Migicovsky plans to join Y Combinator as an advisor for early-stage companies on hardware development.
The Bloomberg report also mentions that Fitbit will close Pebble's offices and only the software engineers have been offered jobs. Fitbit doesn't seem to be interested in retaining members in the hardware team. Pebble engineers will be moved to Fitbit's offices in San Francisco.
Sources familiar with the arrangement have told Bloomberg that the announcement is imminent.