Thinking of Buying a Fitbit Blaze? Wait
If you were thinking of getting one of Fitbit's higher-end fitness trackers such as the Fitbit Blaze, you should probably hold off. The fitness tracker company is reportedly gearing up to purchase smartwatch veteran Pebble, which could make the Fitbits of the future even smarter.
According to a report from The Information, Fitbit will acquire Pebble for an unspecified "small amount," and will acquire the company's assets as the Pebble brand shuts down. While that's a bummer for fans of Pebble's watches — and you should buy one while you can — it could mean great things for Fitbit's next round of advanced fitness trackers.
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This year's Fitbit Blaze, for example, aimed to blend smartwatch features with fitness-tracking capabilities, but the combination didn't come together quite as nicely as we hoped. The wearable lacked an always-on display, had some performance issues and wasn't the prettiest smartwatch to look at.
But if you take a look at everything the recent Pebble 2 + Heart Rate got right, it's easy to see a future of better Fitbits. Pebble's most recent wearable utilizes an e-paper display that's consistently easy to read (a trademark of the company's watches) and is notably sleek despite its added fitness features.
Pebble also offers an intuitive Timeline interface and a whopping 15,000 apps and watch faces, which could make the next Fitbit Blaze a lot more versatile should Fitbit decide to keep those features.
Pebble has had its share of troubles in 2016. In fact, the company laid off 40 people in March, or 25 percent of its staff, citing a lack of funds. In fact, the whole smartwatch market has been sluggish, with the new Apple Watch being the lone bright spot.
However, a device that combines Pebble's smartwatch smarts with Fitbit's fitness tracking prowess could wind up being a great combo.
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