Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Garmin's –$40B Pivot

readtrung.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 317 posts

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#171

Post by freshchilled »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #75
sylens wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple Watch is also a terribly designed device for running. Too much of its functions rely on interacting with the touchscreen, something you are either unable to do with sweaty hands when running or don't want to do as it draws your attention away for a prolonged amount of time and hurts your form. Garmin's unwavering commitment to physical buttons and how you can customize what they do is what makes them the go…

As a non-Appleista, what strikes me most is their "silo" mentality. Most of the iPhone /iWatch using fitness types I know log their stuff inside the Apple cloud, and do not crosspost to Garmin Connect or Strava so the non-Appleistas don't see their stuff. Whereas the Garmin/Strava world is relatively open. I can for example take the original Forerunner (pictured in the article) and upload stuff from it to the Garmin…

> I've lost more than one bike ride because the start/stop button was bumped on the Forerunner and it turned out not to be recording.

I've had that happen to me during yoga and boxing workouts I've recorded. There's a way to lock the physical buttons (at least on my Instinct watch), which requires multiple presses to stop/start a workout. IIRC, it's by holding the light button.

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#173

Post by malfist »

spchampion2 wrote: post #126

I have a Garmin Descent Mk2i which I use for scuba diving, and it's a fabulous all-purpose fitness and adventure watch. I've used to for hundreds of dives, navigation on multiple backpacking trips, cycling, and tons of other stuff. I even wear it daily, and it nicely supports notifications from my phone. When Garmin originally launched a scuba watch, I was kind of surprised. It's a small market, and there were a lot…

Man, I wanted to get the garmin dive computer so bad. It's got so many awesome features, it's just priced out of my budget. Wound up going with the peregrine from shearwater, which was about half the price, but does way less than the garmin.

Another place they shine is for bikes. Their radar system that integrates with a bike computer is absolutely groundbreaking. It's so fantastic to be able to know when a car is coming up behind you without having to turn your head and possibly lose balance, it's such a great safety feature.

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#174

Post by figers »

hedora wrote: post #111
scarface_74 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With my Apple Watch, I don’t need my phone when I’m running, swimming or at the gym. I can receive and return texts, make and receive calls and listen to music either stored on the watch or streamed over cellular.

I wish I could just use the watch for everything and dump the phone. It does some ham fisted stuff to prevent this. For example, the watch Bluetooth stack detects that it is connected to a car stereo and refuses to work.

not being able to connect to car bluetooth is painful, why can't they just let that work already!

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#175

Post by jeffbee »

jpgvm wrote: post #148
jeffbee wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the margins on that business are not exceptional. Operating income on "outdoor" segment of their business, the one that includes the epix and fenix series watches and so forth, is higher than aviation segment.

Margin isn't everything, it's a very stable business with a very wide technological and regulatory moat. Add to that fierce brand loyalty among pilots and it's a great business IMO. Personal electronics (unless you are Apple basically) is a pretty fickle business and fortunes can change very rapidly. Aviation? Not so much, unless you chuck a Boeing.

I just always thought that given what you said — it's a good product with a giant moat — the margins would be just about infinite.

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#176

Post by do_not_redeem »

jmull wrote: post #101
jagermo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate on " aren't designed for wearing all the time"? I wear my Epix 2 every day and it does all I want from a smartwatch - see incoming texts and calls while it tracks my health stats day and night. Yes, apple watch or Samsung ones may have more features, but I am not missing anything.

> can you elaborate on " aren't designed for wearing all the time"? Well, they look like sport watches. People can choose the aesthetic they want, but you're sending a message with one that's that opinionated, which I don't particularly want to.

The newer Fenixes are a lot more elegant looking. If you paired it with one of those steel-link straps I don't see why it wouldn't look great with a suit.

The official straps are pricey but you can easily find cheaper aftermarket ones, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Titanium-strap-Garmin-AMOLED-titanium...

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#177

Post by danudey »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #14

Interesting article. My partner bought an Apple watch a couple of years ago and I was shocked at what a poor value proposition it was. Very expensive and wouldn't even hold a charge for a day. I guess you get used to it but having to charge my watch every day would drive me mad. Obviously there are things it will do better than a Garmin (and things it can do that a Garmin simply can't) but overall it didn't make sens…

> I guess you get used to it but having to charge my watch every day would drive me mad.

The upside of the small battery capacity is a relatively fast charge time. If you put a watch charger in your bathroom you could put your watch on the charger when you go in for a shower and it'll be charged by the time you're finished showering, getting dressed, etc. I find it's a time that I have my watch off anyway, so it's not something that interferes with my daily use in any way. YMMV obviously, and after a few years when the battery starts holding less of a charge you may find a weirder time spacing that becomes irritating at times, but it's worked for me for years.

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#178

Post by JanisErdmanis »

world2vec wrote: post #143

Slightly offtopic but my girlfriend's smartwatch is falling apart and can't stand it anymore. Her birthday is coming soon and was thinking about a Garmin smartwatch. She runs a lot, gym almost everyday. Loves tracking fitness data and workouts but she's petite. Anyone with good recs on what to check?

Have also a look on Garmin 7s

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#179

Post by dboreham »

maskull wrote: post #2

I'm amazed apple has got by with a 3/4 day charge for 10 generations while garmin has had products with a 7+ day charge for years.

Samsung has had 2+ day charge for several generations. Their software was/is terrible, but since the switch to Google code 2 generations ago it is not bad.

Re: Garmin's –$40B Pivot

#180

Post by stouset »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #75
sylens wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple Watch is also a terribly designed device for running. Too much of its functions rely on interacting with the touchscreen, something you are either unable to do with sweaty hands when running or don't want to do as it draws your attention away for a prolonged amount of time and hurts your form. Garmin's unwavering commitment to physical buttons and how you can customize what they do is what makes them the go…

As a non-Appleista, what strikes me most is their "silo" mentality. Most of the iPhone /iWatch using fitness types I know log their stuff inside the Apple cloud, and do not crosspost to Garmin Connect or Strava so the non-Appleistas don't see their stuff. Whereas the Garmin/Strava world is relatively open. I can for example take the original Forerunner (pictured in the article) and upload stuff from it to the Garmin…

What strikes me is that I alread have a central authoritative store of health and fitness information on my Apple devices bundled directly into the operating system but every single app in that category wants me to use them as the single database of truth instead. Even when they have integration with Health!

Everything goes into Apple Health but individual apps can barely talk to one another. Oura won’t pull heart rate data from Apple Health, so when I track my lifting workouts on my watch (a ring is a no-go for barbell work) it’s not there. Same for my Polar chest strap which I use during judo and BJJ. Oura is completely blind to this despite the data being available and it having access through Health.

Strava only pulls in workouts for apps that have been directly connected to it. So I have to have n:m connections between apps with this model, and only get sync between apps that have explicit Strava integration. For Garmin cycling workouts this works okay. When I integrate with Polar workouts, Strava insists on reduplicating the data back into Apple Health a second time. I have yet to find a way to get the data into Strava but have it recorded once instead sold zero times or twice.

Garmin directly refuses to use anything not recorded from their own devices. It won’t import sleep from my Oura or Withings trackers, heart rate from anything else, etc. Want to use any of the derived metrics in their app? Sorry, you'll need to exclusively use Garmin devices for everything in order to have all that data in place.

The only thing that isn’t a complete shitshow in this entire ecosystem is Apple Health.

Post reply on HN