Documented cause
Pebble launched its first Kickstarter campaign in April 2012 and raised $10.3 million in 37 days — the largest Kickstarter campaign in history at the time. It had invented a category: the e-ink smartwatch that worked with iOS and Android, displayed notifications, and lasted a week on a single charge. The product was genuinely good. By 2015, Pebble had sold over a million watches and launched a second Kickstarter raising $20 million, demonstrating that consumer appetite for smartwatches was real.
Then Apple Watch launched in April 2015. It ran at a higher price point but offered a color screen, Apple Pay, health monitoring, and tight iOS integration. In 2015 alone, Apple sold an estimated 12 million Apple Watches — more than the entire Swiss watch industry sold that year. Google launched Android Wear. The smartwatch market that Pebble had pioneered was immediately colonized by platform giants with unlimited hardware R&D budgets and software ecosystems that made deep watch integration only possible on their own hardware.
Pebble attempted to compete with new models at lower price points. But by mid-2016 the company was running out of cash and could not raise a new venture round — investors had seen what happened to everyone who competed directly with Apple. In December 2016, Fitbit acquired Pebble's software and intellectual property for approximately $40 million — less than 6% of its $740 million peak valuation. The hardware line was discontinued immediately. 60,000 outstanding orders were cancelled. Pebble users were given a few months before their devices' cloud services were shut down.
Alternative account: Pebble was founded in 2012 by Eric Migicovsky and launched via Kickstarter in April 2012 with a goal of $100,000 — ultimately raising $10.3M, a world record at the time. The company pioneered the modern smartwatch category: always-on e-ink display, weeks of battery life, notifications, and app support. Pebble raised approximately $46M total including a record $20.3M Kickstarter in 2015. At peak the company had 130 employees and was shipping to passionate early adopters. Apple Watch launched in April 2015 with iOS ecosystem integration, health sensors, and Apple's design quality. Fitbit IPO'd in June 2015, capturing the fitness tracking segment. Pebble — a hardware-only company with a fraction of the resources — could not match either competitor's software integration or distribution. The Pebble 2 and Time 2 watches were ready for shipping in 2016 but investors declined to fund continued operations. In December 2016, Fitbit acquired Pebble's software, patents, and key engineers for approximately $40M. All Pebble products were discontinued and cloud services shut down in June 2018.