Garmin Reacts to Apple Watch Ultra: 'We Measure Battery Life in Months. Not Hours.'

[Steve686]

So it’s not just Garmin advertising then.

I’ve just had a quick look and there’s more posts on here than any of the threads actually discussing the Ultra

Because when a new product comes out, there is an extreme urge to compare it to what is on the market. Same thing with the Samsung vs. Apple debate.

Garmin happens to be the most closely tailored maker compared to Apple in terms of watch features and who each company is marketing this watches to.

 

[heinzel]

Ahem - Garmin *does* measure battery life in hours (see Fenix battery info). Not sure what music mode does, but it does seem to kill the Fenix 7 battery pretty good.

Regardless, it's interesting the Garmin feels compelled to respond to the Apple Watch Ultra at all - did Apple make any comparisons of their new watch to Garmin's?

 

[Steve686]

Yah, I'd like to think about it - I do have Garmin stock. But they are making kickarse airplane avionics stuff too.

This fitness GPS stuff is not the biggest money maker for Garmin - but I really do not know. I just know that I thought the world of GPS was good so I bought some Garmin shares years ago, and they still sit there - basically dust in my portfolio these days. Should I sell my Garmin shares maybe?

3% dividend on GRMN - so I just let it sit there. Shoulda sold when it was higher I guess.

Yep.

I use Garmin on our boat and hate RayMarine or any other company when it comes to GPS features for the marine segment and even the avionics gadgets as I do fly Cessna 172's.

 

[MacCurry]

And it does nothing but tell time and needs to be readjusted. Every month or so.

Not all. The Omega Speedmaster is a classic and was used to keep accurate time. Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 used it for his calculations to get back to earth after a near disaster. If I had $6,500 USD as just disposable fun income, I would probably get one.

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[jole]

Marketing a specific "hours of" battery life for a watch is always total non-sense.

Features like playing music, blood oxygen measurement, HR accuracy (sampling interval), GPS accuracy, LTE, screen brightness, phone calls, screen mode (always on, wrist based), connection to wifi, connection to phone, LTE/Wifi signal strength, apps used, watch face, ... etc will all affect the battery life immensely. Depending on settings the same watch can have anywhere between 10 hours to 10 days battery life.

Would be great if Apple would have a battery-life estimator on their page. Allow one to tune parameters. That would educate the buyer on features and demonstrate that competition might be telling a more misleading story on battery life ...

I would not be surprised if Apple Watch Ultra will get 10+ days of battery-life if one turns everything off. Apple just would not want to market that as it would set wrong expectations.

 

[SFjohn]

It’s still a sad state of affairs that battery technology is so limited.

Physics is a bitch, and battery technology is some of the most frustrating physics to move forward. Lots of great ideas, but nothing that will work at scale yet.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I don't know, if I'm hanging off the side of a mountain - the amount of days my watch will hold a charge seems to be more important than how bright the screen gets or how many complications I can fit on the screen at one time.

If I'm hanging off the side of the mountain, I'm not even bothering to wear a watch. Then again, I'm never bothering to wear a watch 🏂

 

[jole]

If Garmin wants to mock Apple, they should focus on two factual and drastic benefits they have:

• Ant+
• Offline maps

Not everyone will care about ant+, but having an adventure watch without a map is mind-boggling. Even Apple acknowledges this:

 

[Steve686]

Please note: positioning the AW Ultra at the high end adventure market, does not mean Apple is only aiming for the high end adventure market. The "high end adventure market" is tiny, so most of the AW Ultra sales (or Garmin sales for that matter) will be to folks who just like the idea of a watch competent for the high end adventure market.

IMO Apple will not start to get a little market from Garmin just because of the button and Apple will not have a long way to go to compete. Odds are that Apple will start to kick Garmin's butt almost immediately, probably within the first year of Ultra sales.

Yep.

I've said the same thing with the analogy that most people that buy Apple computers have "overbought" for what they actually need.

No difference.

Poll all the people that defend the Garmin watches to no end and ask them what kind of computer they bought and what they actually work on.

It's a watch. People will buy it. Some will use it for XX and some will use it for YY. If it doesn't pan out for the hardest core users, they won't buy it, but Apple will sell a good quantity of this first iteration of Apple Watch Ultra. The future and feedback will dictate where Apple goes with this new Watch version.

 

[leicaman]

And yet, the Apple Watch Ultra is what will be on my wrist on September 23rd.

 

[SFjohn]

I hear ya. I not crazy about the loss either. The one feature that I really, really like is the addition of that third customizable button. The other nice feature is a more accurate GPS receiver. Other than that, I don’t care for any of the others features.

Hmm…not getting one though. Lol. Sigh.

I usually get a new watch each year, keeping the last 2 so one is always changing. I wasn’t planning on getting the Ultra because of the rumored price of up to $1,199.00 starting price. Then it was released at $799.00. My old eyes aren’t good with small text, so the bigger, brighter screen and longer battery life sold me, despite it‘s look. I already get 36 hours out of my AW7, so I’m looking forward to what the Ultra will bring.

 

[AMessy]

I was in the Garmin Ecosystem (Forerunner watch and Edge cycling computer) before trying the AW Series 2 when it was released. Since then I've gone back and forth before finally giving up on the entire Garmin ecosystem when I switched back from the Forerunner 945 to the AW Series 6 LTE I had switched from. I even switched from the Edge 1030+ I was using at the time to a Hammerhead Karoo 2.

I ordered the AW Ultra which really solves most of my last remaining issues.

The Garmin cycling and running products were a nightmare software wise. They often failed to update, lost recorded activities, or failed to connect to sensors. I won't go into the disaster that was trying to connect to my phone via bluetooth or their live track feature that I had stop using since it would often leave my family wondering if I was dead in a ditch since it would show me static for hours at a time.

We go a a large aviation expo each year and I see the Garmin booths with what seem to be highly regarded products. I always chuckle to myself that the avionics software group who can auto land a plane should help the outdoor/fitness group figure out how to update a map without breaking all ability to connect over bluetooth.

Anyways I've always thought that the AW and the Garmin Forerunner/Fenix series were simply in two different product categories where you had to choose one and deal with the compromises. The AW Ultra has less compromises, I have a feeling it will cut into Garmin's sales some.

 

[msackey]

I usually get a new watch each year, keeping the last 2 so one is always changing. I wasn’t planning on getting the Ultra because of the rumored price of up to $1,199.00 starting price. Then it was released at $799.00. My old eyes aren’t good with small text, so the bigger, brighter screen and longer battery life sold me, despite it‘s look. I already get 36 hours out of my AW7, so I’m looking forward to what the Ultra will bring.

Wow! 37 hours out of the AW7. That’s amazing. I’m in the AW4 so it’s old by now but still does what I want it to so long as it’s charged nightly. Enjoy the ultra. (Excuse typos from previous post. All done on iPhone. Lol)

 

[mebehere]

We love Apple! Rah rah rah! We hate anything not Apple! Rah rah rah!

 

[WannaGoMac]

Reminds me of when Blackberry users would brag of physical keyboards.

They still are complaining about loss of physical keyboard actually...

 

[SFjohn]

Garmin: We’re soft on features but go long before we need juice, the other guys go hard on features but need juice way more often. 😱

 

[SFjohn]

We love Apple! Rah rah rah! We hate anything not Apple! Rah rah rah!

Oh you mountain climber you! 😉

 

[Alan Wynn]

Nobody cares about Siri or Apple Pay. We’re talking about a device for athletes to track their activities. If you are actually saying people would buy an AW over a Garmin because it has Siri then there’s nothing else to discuss lmao

I often go out jogging with just my Apple Watch and without my iPhone. Being able to buy water at various of the ApplePay equipped Coke machines is something I really like. In the same way, being able to select my music or podcast just using my voice and my Air Pods Pro is also a benefit. Finally, unless everyone who buys a Garmin watch only cares about the sports functionality and does not use it in any other way, all the other features of the ecosystem matter. I am do not do extreme sports, but I plan to get an Ultra because the improvements make it better for the sports and workouts I do, while the rest of the user experience - what I do with my watch 80% of the time - is so well integrated with my ecosystem of choice that Garmin just is not a consideration for me.

 

[mebehere]

oops

 

[mebehere]

Oh you mountain climber you! 😉

 

[Alan Wynn]

A simple Google search of “Garmin 10k” will pull up the annual filings for the SEC. On page 48 of the 2021 filing, Garmins revenue was $4.98B. So sales are measured in billions, not thousands like you assume. But hey, at least u got 100’s of likes for your ill-informed opinion.

Sorry, the statement he made was about unit sales, not about dollars. I would also add that in 2021, Garmin's fitness segment earned $373 million (on sales of $1.5 billion), not the $4.98 total net income for all of Garmin.

 

[maccymac42]

Apple's response:

"We measure unit sales in millions, not thousands".

This is just admitting defeat to the competitors battery though...? Not as effective as you think. 'Because we have more customers, battery life doesn't matter'? It wouldn't be wrong though - Apple customers who aren't extreme sports enthusiasts will eat up the Ultra. Just the extreme sport enthusiasts that won't. It'll be the pretenders watch.

 

[maccymac42]

'Despite Garmin's claim that it measures battery life in months, the company actually advertises the Enduro 2 as having "up to 150 hours of battery life in GPS mode with solar charging" and "up to 34 days of battery life in smartwatch mode."'

A pedant author going out of their way to misunderstand numbers. A month is 28-31 days long. The time you quoted is longer than month. Lordy, the fanboyism and lack of common sense around this watch is astounding. 'MuSt. JusTifY. PurChaSe!'

 

[maccymac42]

Sorry, the statement he made was about unit sales, not about dollars. I would also add that in 2021, Garmin's fitness segment earned $373 million (on sales of $1.5 billion), not the $4.98 total net income for all of Garmin.

Give it up. Comparing the companies financials or unit sales doesn't dictate how long the batteries last. Garmin outpaces Apple here and then some. And it should - it's a more focused device, whereas Apple Watch has more functionality. Stop chasing your tail trying to justify your purchase or defend Apple. They are beat here. Doesn't mean the Ultra won't sell bucket loads to people who wanna think they're extreme, or who drive 4x4s around cities and to pick up the kids. Tim Cook thanks you for swearing that oath to them though.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Here you go. I have a Quatix 6 (not solar) and sailed from the Cape Verde islands to Martinique 2000 miles across the Atlantic on a single charge - A 13 day trip. That was in smartwatch mode and gave me 14 days charge but could have gone 40+ days in eco mode.

That is cool. You had no way of charging it while you were enroute? Out of curiosity, can you estimate the size of the market of people who do 2,000 mile sailing trips is?

The important point is not that Garmin does not address certain niches that Apple does not yet (or maybe ever) serve, but that the number, size and profitability of these niches is shrinking and the concern for Garmin needs to be if the market gets small enough that they cannot fund future development.