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That thought did come to my head as I was typing this. I was just watching the keynote video yesterday, and the segment came across as appealing to those in the market for an aspirational, high-end Apple Watch. I don't think Apple is going to do a retread of the $19000 gold Apple Watch (which never made sense as it's going to be obsolete in a couple of years, unlike regular luxury timepieces), so health and fitness continue to the next most logical areas to double down on.

Part of growing any sport or activity is getting people to take an interest in it. I'm sure there are some people that will use the AWUltra as a Segway into some of the activities Apple is promoting with the new watch offering.
 
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No, those types will go A 10000mah battery for their iPhone and Apple Watch. The Garmin buyers are the ones that regularly hang off a mountain.
The reviews I've read in Outside, etc., as well as threads in hiker subfoums on Reddit, say otherwise. People love the Apple Watch for dayhikes, but for multi-day hikes they go with Garmin and similar watches because of better battery life, better GPS tracking (including the track-back feature if you're going off-trail), water resistance (Apple has Water Lock, but that locks the screen), and general robustness.
 
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Yeahh well, but Garmin has crap and clunky interface with overly complicated features.

All I miss from Apple is a dedicated cycling comp, but for everyday ride my AWS 5 is enough.
 
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Nokia used to use battery life as their benchmark too :rolleyes:
But the iPhone offered so much more, and its battery life (of one day) was adequate. It mostly still is, since we sleep every day and use this time to charge our phones.

The Apple Watch (Ultra included) offers so much less, for sports and sleep tracking. And here battery life matters hugely.

I'm in no way married to Garmin and generally have little brand loyalty. But workouts, offline maps, seamless chest band monitor integration, cycling integration, sleep monitoring, ease of use... I can start my most frequent workout without looking at it, by pressing one button. The wealth of training and health information is quite something.

The Ultra is nowhere close. And it's rectangular, with this ugly "bubble app" UI which I cannot stand. Doesn't compare - a markedly inferior, but pretentious product.

There's a lot of copium in this thread, however unlike the iPhone, the Apple Watch hasn't quite been the runaway success - few people buy it - and really, apart from the iPhone, Apple just doesn't have a runaway success product as much as they feel it's essential to project this winner vibe everywhere, and cover their largely mediocre product base.
 
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The Apple Watch (Ultra included) offers so much less, for sports and sleep tracking. And here battery life matters hugely.

I'm in no way married to Garmin and generally have little brand loyalty. But workouts, offline maps, seamless chest band monitor integration, cycling integration, sleep monitoring, ease of use... I can start my most frequent workout without looking at it, by pressing one button. The wealth of training and health information is quite something.

The Ultra is nowhere close. And it's rectangular, with this ugly "bubble app" UI which I cannot stand. Doesn't compare - a markedly inferior, but pretentious product.

There's a lot of copium in this thread, however unlike the iPhone, the Apple Watch hasn't quite been the runaway success - few people buy it - and really, apart from the iPhone, Apple just doesn't have a runaway success product as much as they feel it's essential to project this winner vibe everywhere, and cover their largely mediocre product base.
Not to sound like an apple fan but I’m in socal largest state by population and 5th largest economy and everyone and their mom has an Apple Watch. Yes it less ubiquitous than an iPhone but it’s still many people I see wearing one than the rare android user. Many people in retail I see where them as well. To say Apple Watch is hadn’t been a runaway success clearly is an understatement.
 
Rolex measures “battery life” in centuries. Different equipment with different capabilities, usages and prices. It’s more about Garmim surfing the hype of a launch than a serious comparison.
 
gotta give it to Garmin though. regarding just battery.

Garmin won't have to be afraid of losing market share as much soon.

AW is on features, unlike Garmin focusing on functional
 
I'm not an athlete in any sense of the word. I opted for Ultra because it's only another $50 from the SS S8 I was planning to buy originally, and adds quite a bit more. I was willing to buy a ceramic watch if one was released this time around. So the Ultra is perfect for me, while a Garmin isn't. My stepdad has older Garmin and Suunto watches and he's never been much of an athlete as far as I'm aware.
Exactly - people buy jeeps to go into the city.

I would have clearly gone for a titanium non-rugged version with a similar display - but the Ultra is a great deal.
Will have to see, how the “ruggedness” works with a normal strap - but hey a lot of office workers wear Rolex tool watches without going to the button of the ocean or working in High Magnetic fields.
 
There's a lot of copium in this thread, however unlike the iPhone, the Apple Watch hasn't quite been the runaway success - few people buy it
Define few. AboveAvalon estimates the Apple Watch user base at roughly 10% of iphone users.
 
The reviews I've read in Outside, etc., as well as threads in hiker subfoums on Reddit, say otherwise. People love the Apple Watch for dayhikes, but for multi-day hikes they go with Garmin and similar watches because of better battery life, better GPS tracking (including the track-back feature if you're going off-trail), water resistance (Apple has Water Lock, but that locks the screen), and general robustness.
The Apple Watch is water resistant with/without water lock.
 
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I measure it in things I can do with it not days of battery.

But meh.

Different market.

BUT THAT MARKET FOR GARMIN IS GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER since the Ultra.
What evidence is this based on? You can go buy a Garmin watch for cheaper than the normal Apple Watch and ones with dedicated features to certain activities—golf, sailing, etc. that Apple hasn’t cracked at all yet. I own the AW6 and the next time I buy a watch, it’s going to be a Garmin because of battery life and features that are significantly better suited to long distance events. If I’m paying $800 for a watch, it will have solar charging.
 
Sonos isn't really in the cheap speaker market though. Apple gave up on their premium speaker pretty quickly because the competition at that level is much greater.
The post to which I was replying said:
That’s the same thing Sonos said about the HomePod.
It was replying to this post
Apple's response:

"We measure unit sales in millions, not thousands".
In other words, @mikethemartian was saying that Sonos would say to Apple what Apple was saying to Garmin. To which I pointed out that the HomePod mini vastly out sells Sonos’s entire line. In other words, Sonos is not the volume leader in the space that Apple is in smart watches.
 
Another Booboisie Bauble to show how much you can afford to spend on meaningless "Goes to 11!" features.

Garmin for my Ant+ units, my bike speedo, my smart scale etc.

AND, my Garmin watches will STILL work with the Apple iPhone I upgrade to from my Android phone that Garmin ALSO works with.

If Garmin could hire someone to straighten out their 1970s interface, they would have no competition except from the "Look'it ME, Everyone, Look'it ME!" crowd.
 
Not to sound like an apple fan but I’m in socal largest state by population and 5th largest economy and everyone and their mom has an Apple Watch. Yes it less ubiquitous than an iPhone but it’s still many people I see wearing one than the rare android user. Many people in retail I see where them as well. To say Apple Watch is hadn’t been a runaway success clearly is an understatement.
I'm in Switzerland and I barely see them. This is one of the richest countries in the world. In other parts of Europe - especially in the East - an Apple Watch is as rare as hen's teeth. Same in Asia, they sell a bit in Japan and that's about it.

It just hasn't been a runaway success. It's a very particular lifestyle product - a smartwatch with smooth animations (this is the strongest point), some apps and some health/fitness functions, mediocre battery life, a feminine smooth look and a rectangular shape, which is fine but hardly for everyone.

Now this Ultra is squarely aimed at the fitness crowd but doesn't deliver anything that special, they mostly added one physical button. Get a Fenix 7 instead, it's infinitely superior for extreme sports than a lifestyle watch with a sporty pretense and a one day battery life.

Don't get upset if I say that Garmin has a widely superior offering in this market segment. They do. Whenever someone else (Apple included) takes the crown, I'll be among the first to jump ship. I look at Polar and Fitbit and Suunto and Apple etc all the time and I call it as I see it.

But this Ultra ain't it. It's not the money either - my Epix 2 was a lot more expensive, add the titanium band, it was nearly double the price.
 
To me that's very few.
That would be about 100m. It’s more than “a few”. But “a few” is an ambiguous term with different meaning to different people.

That both garmin and Samsung are taking pot shots at apple shows both companies are “afraid” of apple.
 
Another Booboisie Bauble to show how much you can afford to spend on meaningless "Goes to 11!" features.
Sorry, this is an $800 product. Very few people are buying it to show off, as very few people know enough about the Apple Watch market to know the price points.
Garmin for my Ant+ units, my bike speedo, my smart scale etc.
I prefer Wahoo for my bike products (switched from Garmin many years ago) and Withings for my smart scale.
AND, my Garmin watches will STILL work with the Apple iPhone I upgrade to from my Android phone that Garmin ALSO works with.
Well, it sort of works with an iPhone. Cannot send or reply to iMessages, cannot support ApplePay, HomeKey, Car Key, etc., however you are right, if one wants to be able to move between Android and iOS more than once, the Apple Watch (and Apple’s tightly integrated ecosystem) is not for you.
If Garmin could hire someone to straighten out their 1970s interface, they would have no competition except from the "Look'it ME, Everyone, Look'it ME!" crowd.
Hmmm. What seems more likely, Garmin finally figuring out UI/UX after all these years, or Apple adding enough features in its incremental development (now that it has turned its attention in that direction), to take an increasingly large share of Garmin’s users. Garmin’s problem long term is that Apple (and Google) take enough of the market to make it hard for them to continue investing in it.
 
That would be about 100m. It’s more than “a few”. But “a few” is an ambiguous term with different meaning to different people.

That both garmin and Samsung are taking pot shots at apple shows both companies are “afraid” of apple.
I think you're reading too much into it. I don't think Garmin needs to fear Apple to mock them. Surely, the Ultra can rightly be mocked by Garmin simply because it's masquerading as serious (even extreme) sports gear with very little to back it up and particularly pitiful battery life.
 
I'm in Switzerland and I barely see them. This is one of the richest countries in the world. In other parts of Europe - especially in the East - an Apple Watch is as rare as hen's teeth. Same in Asia, they sell a bit in Japan and that's about it.

It just hasn't been a runaway success. It's a very particular lifestyle product - a smartwatch with smooth animations (this is the strongest point), some apps and some health/fitness functions, mediocre battery life, a feminine smooth look and a rectangular shape, which is fine but hardly for everyone.

Now this Ultra is squarely aimed at the fitness crowd but doesn't deliver anything that special, they mostly added one physical button. Get a Fenix 7 instead, it's infinitely superior for extreme sports than a lifestyle watch with a sporty pretense and a one day battery life.

Don't get upset if I say that Garmin has a widely superior offering in this market segment. They do. Whenever someone else (Apple included) takes the crown, I'll be among the first to jump ship. I look at Polar and Fitbit and Suunto and Apple etc all the time and I call it as I see it.

But this Ultra ain't it. It's not the money either - my Epix 2 was a lot more expensive, add the titanium band, it was nearly double the price.
I’m also in Switzerland and know many people wearing an Apple Watch. The sports crowd will adopt the Apple Watch Ultra as an alternative to Garmin, though they currently lead.
 
I think you're reading too much into it. I don't think Garmin needs to fear Apple to mock them. Surely, the Ultra can rightly be mocked by Garmin simply because it's masquerading as serious (even extreme) sports gear with very little to back it up and particularly pitiful battery life.
Sure if one wants to forego the things that make an Apple Watch an Apple Watch and are the elite of the elite get the garmin. That’s doesn’t seem to be apples’ target.

Apples seeming target are those who do extreme sports but still want an Apple Watch at the heart of it.

Garmins battery life is great until you actually use it and try to get the functionality of an Apple Watch.
 
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