It’s probably little consolation for Pebble devotees who’ve slowly watched the hardware startup sink into oblivion, but Fitbit’s offering up a good will gesture by extending support for the smartwatch’s ecosystem for another six months.
Those who’ve been clutching onto their crowdfunded wearable for dear life will be able to keep the product up and running through June 30 of this year. Fitbit is throwing users the life line, all while attempting to convince them to get on board with the Ionic — the closest the devices have to a director successor.
On that day, the company will discontinue support for the Pebble app store, forum, voice recognition functionality and sms and email, among others, essentially rendering the device a shiny bit of plastic.
After snapping up Pebble back in-late 2016, Fitbit announced that it would be end-of-lifing the startup’s products, and only continuing support through the end of 2017. Fitbit’s purchase had little to do with hardware, instead focusing on Pebble’s SDK, as the company started work on its own native app store for its first true smartwatch.
The Ionic was met with mixed reviews and sales were reportedly not strong enough to turn around the company, which has been hurting of late. This move seems to be less about consoling Pebble supporters than it is an attempt to drum up business for the new smartwatch. In fact, the company’s also tossing in a $50 discount on the Ionic for Pebble owners with a valid serial number.
“Fitbit OS will continue to grow and expand,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We’re eager for the Pebble community to join the adventure. There’s so much within the Fitbit platform for Pebble fans to love.”
You can see a list of the ways in which the Ionic OS is kind of like Pebble over on Fitbit’s site.
