Pebble (watch)

Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation. Funding was conducted through a Kickstarter campaign running from April 11, 2012, to May 18, 2012, which raised $10.3 million; it was the most funded project in Kickstarter history, at the time. Pebble began shipping watches to Kickstarter backers in January 2013. Pebble watches can be connected to Android and iOS devices to show notifications and messages. An online app store distributed Pebble-compatible apps from many developers including ESPN, Uber, Runkeeper, and GoPro. A steel-bodied variant to the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel, was announced at CES 2014 and released in February 2014. It has a thinner body, tactile metal buttons, and a Corning Gorilla Glass screen. It is available in two finishes: black matte and brushed stainless steel, with both a black leather and a matching steel band. In 2015, Pebble launched its second generation of smartwatches: the Pebble Time and Time Steel. The devices were similarly funded through Kickstarter, raising$20.3 million from over 75,000 backers and breaking records for the site. In 2016, Pebble shut down their subsequent Time 2 series watches and refunded Kickstarter backers, citing financial issues. On December 7, 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down, and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties. Pebble's intellectual property was purchased by Fitbit, a wearable technology company specializing in fitness tracking, who also hired some of the Pebble staff. Further clarification on the transition timeline and efforts to render Pebble OS and its watchfaces/apps more self-sufficient was posted to the Pebble Dev Blog on December 14, 2016. Support for the Pebble app store, online forum, cloud development tool, voice recognition, and voice replies ceased in June 2018, although support for some online services was restored by the unofficial "Rebble" community.