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Pebble Says Existing Smartwatch Services Will Continue to Function Through 2017

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Pebble has moved to reassure its customers that software and services will continue to run through 2017, following Fitbit's acquisition of the company last week.

Fitbit bought out Pebble for its software assets, not for its hardware, which has concerned many existing owners of Pebble smartwatches about the continued functionality of their devices. Today, however, Pebble sought to allay fears by confirming in a blog post that services would continue as normal for at least another year.

pebblehealth

Fitbit is going out of its way to keep Pebble software and services running through 2017. To be clear, no one on this freshly-formed team seeks to brick Pebble watches in active service. The Pebble SDK, CloudPebble, Timeline APIs, firmware availability, mobile apps, developer portal, and Pebble appstore are all elements of the Pebble ecosystem that will remain in service at this time.

Pebble said it has "seen a massive influx of community developers teaming up to keep the Pebble watch experience alive, long into the future," but as TechCrunch notes, what that means for third-party apps developed for the smartwatch remains unclear.

In addition, Pebble said that it was working on an update for release in the coming months that will ensure the normal operation of core Pebble functions, including Pebble Health, once the company's cloud services close down.

Tags: Fitbit, Pebble

Top Rated Comments

djcerla Avatar
121 months ago
... but one week of battery life!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
the downside to the crazy reliance on "cloud services" these days..
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ip67 Avatar
121 months ago
Bought a Pebble 2 a week before rumors of the acquisition and even wrote my own watch face for it. However, when Pebble confirmed the acquisition and the lack of info they provided on how their services would or would not continue in the future, I returned it back to Amazon.

There was no concrete information, and now with this newly posted information, any thing could happen after 2017; there was no point in keeping this device that might be pretty much useless after a year of ownership.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
Poof goes the cloud.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jackstarkness Avatar
121 months ago
... but one week of battery life!
52 charges remaining!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
honglong1976 Avatar
121 months ago
... but one week of battery life!
The battery lasts longer than the support! :)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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