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Changing pixel density alone is not going to quadruple battery life. The main drains for the battery are: the CPU, the radios, and the LEDs for heart rate.

Apple Watches are true activity trackers for what 99.99% of what people do, and I suspect that they would work fine (from a battery life perspective) 80%-90% of the time even for extreme athletes. Even with two hours of GPS and stats tracked walking/jogging, and one-two hours of indoor workout, I get through 24 hours of use with a 15-20 minute charge during my shower when come back from my two hours in the morning and 15-20 minutes when I get ready for bed. With the Apple Watch Ultra, I might be able to get with nothing more than that, even on the days when I use the watch completely standalone when I am on the track.
I appreciate you agreeing with my assertion that an Apple Watch user needs to be tethered to the power socket multiple times a day, even if it’s for 10-15 minutes at a time.
 
Since we are talking about arbitrary battery life standards, multi-day hike battery life is too for short for - let's say for people living off the grid 6 months out of the year, Garmin then sucks. That person would prefer a 16x2 dot matrix LCD display with battery life of 2 years or better yet, never having to charge. And so the opinion then would be, Garmin does not make watches for true outdoors person. Everyone else is a pretentious person including the so called multi-day hikers.

By that standard, as long as charging is needed, the problem of battery life hasn't been solved. If charging 15 minutes is too much of a trouble for pretentious folks who need a watch when they are on the pot and while showering, then eating 3 meals a days is also too much trouble. Human body is not for them, they need to find a new life form.

Probably way off on a tangent, but that's done just to show how outlandish the argument of reasonable battery life is.
Again, being tethered to a power socket multiple times a day even for 15-20 minutes at a time means one must be close to a city at all times. That hardly yells outdoors to me.
 
The scale is important as there is a difference in selling thousands of watchs vs millions of watches.
There’s a difference for sure, to the company, but to the end user it’s simply irrelevant. You made no case for it to be relevant and I don’t follow you at all. Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling having a product that a lot of other people have? I haven’t heard about that before, but if that’s the case, sure, I guess, more power to you?

I don’t have mainstream cars, or hifi gear, or many other things, and it doesn’t bother me, at all.

Okay, Ultra succeed or not - may not make a difference except prove your speculation wrong.
Of course I could be wrong, so what? I don’t have an oracle certification to lose.

Is that like saying the Mercedes C300 eats into the sales of the Mercedes AMG or the iphone 14 eats into the scales of the iphone pro max? They are both apple watch and if the apple watch ulta is eating into the sales of the AW8, apple is making more revenue. win-win
No, it’s nothing like that. In this case it would be the reverse (if you want a C-class Mercedes you would prefer the AMG instead of the C300, funds permitting) but of course these products have completely different market dynamics since they’re far more replaceable by other brands.

Or not. Garmin may be forced to raise it's prices.
I think the market pressure tends to improve products and make them cheaper, not the other way around.

Whatever it is, the market won't be looking at this thread as it evaluates which tracker to buy.
We’re finally in agreement, yay. I’ll drink to that.
 
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Unless we're talking about a startup - and we aren't, Garmin is a well established company - not to me it's not. Trend is far more important, it's a better predictor of that company making new products, doing updates etc.


This is a very simplistic question. Your premise is false. The actual answer is much more complicated. These are the scenarios in my mind:

1) the Ultra doesn't particularly succeed - makes no difference to me whatsoever
2) the Ultra succeeds but primarily eats into Apple Watch sales - again, it makes no difference to me whatsoever, they can sell millions of units and I wish them the best of luck
3) the Ultra succeeds and eats into Garmin's sales to a moderate extent - this would be the most beneficial for me, because it would probably reduce my next upgrade price and make it better, given the increased competition
4) the Ultra is a runaway success in the sports tracker market so much that it obliterates Garmin/Polar/Suunto/etc, they stop making smartwatches because it's no longer profitable - this would be a disaster, it would leave me with no good fitness tracker option

I personally think it's gonna be (1). It has nothing to with my wishes which are (3). (4) is meteor strike unlikely.
I don’t think 3 would end up the way you want. Apple is already kicking their butt in the regular fitness watch arena so losing more of that market wouldn’t be good (economies of scale). If they got forced into relying only on the “specialist” market, where there is little to no competition, prices would go up.

The fact that Apple doesn’t make a watch that works with Android is the saving grace for most of these companies, so currently number 4 isn't happening.

The main scenario for this watch is getting more Garmin users on iOS to move and getting more Apple Watch users to update their watches, and getting some people into the AW market that prefer this more rugged design. However, this Ultra watch isn't going to appeal to a lot of users because the size it too large for some with small wrists which locks it out of massive success. However, I am still sure they will sell a lot of them.
 
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There’s a difference for sure, to the company, but to the end user it’s simply irrelevant. You made no case for it to be relevant and I don’t follow you at all. Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling having a product that a lot of other people have? I haven’t heard about that before, but if that’s the case, sure, I guess, more power to you?
You made no case for garmins yoy to be relevant either. More relevant is garmin meeting its internal projections? Is apple meeting its projections? The popularity of a device has no bearing on the fit for use. However when consumers get wind of a sinking ship they might go in another direction.
I don’t have mainstream cars, or hifi gear, or many other things, and it doesn’t bother me, at all.
It was pointing to the lack of critical thinking in that reply.
Of course I could be wrong, so what? I don’t have an oracle certification to lose.
Of course, we all could be wrong but you fail to understand, imo, why the Apple Watch ultra could be attractive for consumers by assuming your use case is the only use case.
No, it’s nothing like that. In this case it would be the reverse (if you want a C-class Mercedes you would prefer the AMG instead of the C300, funds permitting) but of course these products have completely different market dynamics since they’re far more replaceable by other brands.
That’s the point they are not any more replaceable by other brands than any other Watch. saying Apple Watch ultra will eat into the sales of Apple Watch shows you don’t understand the marketing. Apple Watch ultra will provide a sale for Apple Watch where one didn’t exist before. (I’m sure apple is crying that a consumer bought an ultra and not the regular model)
I think the market pressure tends to improve products and make them cheaper, not the other way around.
Massive manufacturing volume “, long term relationships, futures contracts and age make products cheaper.
We’re finally in agreement, yay. I’ll drink to that.
 
Love the look and new features of the AW Ultra, especially the dive computer capabilities but without ANT+ connection it's still not quite there for me as I need ANT+ capabilities to connect to my existing power meters, head units and turbo trainers - I guess bluetooth will work for some of these but bluetooth has never been as reliable as ANT+ for me, especially when it comes to controlling turbo trainers.
Just to clarify, did you have Bluetooth connectivity problems with an Apple device connecting to these sensors, or with a Garmin (or some other one)? How long ago was this? Bluetooth has improved version by version (from complete garbage to only very messy), but has finally gotten useable. Thanks to the Apple Watch and iPhones, most of the trainers, power meters, speed and cadence sensors support Bluetooth, and from my experience with my devices, now do it pretty well.
I doubt that Apple will ever add ANT+ though so I'll stick with Garmin for now.
Given its proprietary Garmin nature (it is freely licensed, but it is still owned by them) and Apple's general approach to only support one technology for a job, ANT+ seems unlikely. Their approach has been to work to improve Bluetooth Low Energy, including adding support for multi-device connection (I think that is in Bluetooth 5.3).
Hopefully the AW Ultra will prompt Garmin to improve some of the smart capabilities in their watches. if not and Apple catch-up / overtake Garmin with the sports capabilities of the AW then that will be the time to change.
What functionality would you want to see/have? Are you and iOS/iPadOS/macOS/tvOS user?
I currently use my Garmin Fenix 6 daily for swimming, cycling (road, MTB, CX and gravel), running, triathlon, quadrathlon, hiking, windsurfing, kite-surfing, surfing, surf ski, kayking, SUP, weights, circuits, yoga and of course all of the health features such as step tracking, HRV, sleep metrics etc. Main thing I miss from the AW is the ECG capabilities.
Curious what your average day/week of use is. How many hours of GPS tracked activity do you do in an average day? What about workouts that are not GPS tracked? When you go windsurfing, kayaking, and Kite Surfing, do you have your phone with you? If not, do you have any emergency beacon? How long does it take you to finish a triathlon? A quadathalon? (Why does it take you so long? If you just improved your time by 90%, you would not need as good a battery... Just saying. :) ).

How often do you charge your Fenix 6?
 
Obviously, Garmin thinks this watch with only a “few extra hours of battery life” is something to worry about.. otherwise, they would have no need for their snarky and ridiculous post ( to the point of lying).
Yeah it was a tacky comment.. however as a Garmin user (that has tried almost every apple watch in the past) at this point this thing is a non threat to serious outdoor enthusiasts. There will be many who “try” to make it work but when the tried and true garmin users try it and see that while the battery life is indeed extended like 12 hours the 3rd party apps that you have to use to even get you close to the data that garmin offers is a joke. The returns will be massive for this thing not only because you’ll have the coros and garmin users trying it but the sheer size of it will shock most current Apple Watch owners. I own a fenix 7 x and it’s about 50mm and it’s huge. Fortunately my wrist is able to accommodate but it still looks big. This is where garmin will keep their users particularly females. My wife as a runner would not like to have that size of a watch on her runs she’d rather have a smaller One that garmin offers with all the metrics and yes she’s aware of the 40/41mm AW offerings but hates the 3rd party apps she’d need to get the same data. Some of them you even have to pay monthly/yearly for. That reality alone is something that is not advertised well within the Apple Watch community because the average AW user is content with the simple metrics that the AW gives.
 
They doubled the battery life with this watch and they are working on more efficient chips, so I expect it will get even better over time.
Yes, the advantage of designing your own silicon and having a market large enough to support it, is the ability to build systems that exactly match your needs. I think that moving to TSMC's 3nm process (something Apple will be able to do before anyone else) will help, and if they are successful with their own radio design, that will also be good. Finally, if they decide that this matters, what I bet we will see is more silicon IP for specific functions that do not rely on the main CPU and so can be turned on and off individually for power savings.
I don’t see them making huge sacrifices in the design ( dimmer screen for example) to squeeze out more battery life.
They might have a dimmer mode, but not a different product.
Also, they obviously thought cellular was the way to go since it is great for emergencies, but also drains battery. It is all about the trade offs they made and obviously thought 36 hours of “normal” use would be enough for the vast majority of the market. They will worry about those outliers with new chips down the road.
LTE enables lots of things, and I also bet that at the higher end of their market a very large percentage opted for LTE version, so they just decided not to make two versions.
I guess Apple is happy to give up those that are doing ”multi day extreme sports” that never get a chance to top off a watch over a couple of days.
For the moment. :-D (Probably for the next few versions as well.)
 
Slightly off topic, but I wonder if we'll ever see an iPhone Ultra?
That might be fun.
A phone that's really tough to break, which you can take scuba diving with you
Take a look at Oceanic Worldwide's new case.

has 2+ days battery life would be awesome.
The new battery life extension features for the current generation of iPhones, does give hope that they will consider this.
Maybe this will be the oft-rumoured port-less iPhone.
It would be port-less, but so will all of their iPhones at some point soon. :)
 
Yeah it was a tacky comment.. however as a Garmin user (that has tried almost every apple watch in the past) at this point this thing is a non threat to serious outdoor enthusiasts. There will be many who “try” to make it work but when the tried and true garmin users try it and see that while the battery life is indeed extended like 12 hours the 3rd party apps that you have to use to even get you close to the data that garmin offers is a joke. The returns will be massive for this thing not only because you’ll have the coros and garmin users trying it but the sheer size of it will shock most current Apple Watch owners. I own a fenix 7 x and it’s about 50mm and it’s huge. Fortunately my wrist is able to accommodate but it still looks big. This is where garmin will keep their users particularly females. My wife as a runner would not like to have that size of a watch on her runs she’d rather have a smaller One that garmin offers with all the metrics and yes she’s aware of the 40/41mm AW offerings but hates the 3rd party apps she’d need to get the same data. Some of them you even have to pay monthly/yearly for. That reality alone is something that is not advertised well within the Apple Watch community because the average AW user is content with the simple metrics that the AW gives.
I agree with your analysis. Apple doesn’t try to be all things to all people. They do their market research and figure out their products.

I don’t agree the returns will be massive. I believe there will be attrition from the competition as you can’t assume you know everyone’s motives for buying, not buying or returning.

My son as a marathon runner uses his Apple Watch for metrics. He doesn’t aspire, nor can he be in the top 10, but the AW gives him what he needs.
 
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The lady doth protest too much, methinks. I know people with Garmin's, days, maybe up to 2 weeks, or maybe Garmin means .07 months or some other fractions. Of course if you don't use it for anything except a watch, maybe, but the people I know use it for running, and no way it would last several months, sorry Garmin - not believable.

That being said, yah different technology, different uses, different target markets. So not the same thing, but those with the gamins, do like them, mostly
Garmin watches track more than AW ever will. There is no contest there. In return, Garmin falls shorter on the “smartness” elements but that’s not why people buy Garmins.
 
You can say that when your device does only one thing
I love it when people have no idea what they’re talking about. Ignorance is such a bliss.
You think non-Apple Watches that last 5+ to 30+ days tell only time?
 
True but this is really comparing apples and rocks from cave people. The two watches are like sky and land. Try sending a message through satellite or call some one on that watch. Its like comparing a tv to a radio. Cmon Garmin you should know better don't compare a bicycle to a car.
Why the f*** would one need to call someone via a watch whose battery lasts shorter than a smartphone anyway?
 
If you get a recent Apple Watch, the fast charging really overcomes the battery worries nicely - that's what I find. I often forget to take it off when I sleep and in the morning I can get a decent charge up in 20 minutes - sh*t, shower, shave and charged up
The thing about smaller batteries is not only that it leads to shorter battery life but also shorter battery lifespans. Fastcharge that AW and it will die out faster than regular charging.

Garmin have bigger barriers -> longer battery life -> less cycles of charging -> longer battery lifespan.
 
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Regarding Garmin's tweet to Apple on the Apple Watch Ultra:

I don't think one can make a 1:1 comparison between the Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin Enduro 2. A major difference is the Apple Watch Ultra connects to an iPhone. In addition, Enduro 2 has solar charging. A better comparison might be between the GPS accuracies and other functions like that.

If Garmin wants to do a comparison of battery life, maybe they should try preventing the Enduro watch from solar charging, and should find a way to turn off Apple Watch Ultra connection with the iPhone (which in this case I think means turning off bluetooth?). Then, the comparison is more on an analogous level.
Thank you for that. What need is there for an activity tracker to be connected to a phone at any times to begin with? You make it sound it’s a drawback of Garmin’s when in fact it’s on Apple’s side.
 
Thank you for that. What need is there for an activity tracker to be connected to a phone at any times to begin with? You make it sound it’s a drawback of Garmin’s when in fact it’s on Apple’s side.
Apple Watch doesn’t need a constant connection to an iPhone to use (after first setup)….
 
I appreciate you agreeing with my assertion that an Apple Watch user needs to be tethered to the power socket multiple times a day, even if it’s for 10-15 minutes at a time.
Sorry, I like doing two short times rather than one longer charge. I could get by on a single charge. Looking at Garmin's stats for the Forerunner 945 LTE I expect that I would have to charge it every other day (that is four - six hours of GPS, 2 hours of GPS + Music and two-three hours of workout tracking average over two days) for two hours, rather than 45 minutes a day.

I prefer a daily habit then having to constantly check what my charge level is.
 
Why the f*** would one need to call someone via a watch whose battery lasts shorter than a smartphone anyway?
Many possible reasons.

No phone with you.
Fell/crashes and phone is broken.
Phone lost.
Watch detects a fall/crash and automatically calls emergency contacts/emergency.
Bc they can.

Garmin users will definitely demand more connectivity in the future.
 
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Love all the hardos in here that essentially keep saying “if you don’t wear a Garmin, you’re not a real athlete”

The fact of the matter is, the Ultra is good for most people and for most athletes. I’m an avid Garmin Forerunner 245 user, marathon runner (#humblebrag), and I’ve hated the fact I’ve needed to wear two watches during my races. If I can combine both with the AWU, I’ll be happy to do that. I just need to read the reviews to make sure it really fits my needs

The AWU could represent the best of both worlds. 36-60 hours is good for people/athletes like me. And yes I’m still an athlete for thinking about jumping to an AWU.
Those 36-60 hours are at the expense of shutting off two thirds of the “smart” functions of the AW. And THAT defeats the whole purpose of even wearing an AW.
 
Apple Watch doesn’t need a constant connection to an iPhone to use (after first setup)….
You were just making the assertion that AW’a excuse of having a shorter battery life is because it’s constantly connected to the iPhone.
 
You were just making the assertion that AW’a excuse of having a shorter battery life is because it’s constantly connected to the iPhone.
No, I haven’t commented on this thread today until what you just quoted….

Perhaps you’re confusing me with a different user?
 
Those 36-60 hours are at the expense of shutting off two thirds of the “smart” functions of the AW. And THAT defeats the whole purpose of even wearing an AW.
Did you test that or do you have additional data? I see the up to 60 should be in low power mode, but the 36 are stated to be with full functionality. More than good enough for me. I charge the watch at night anyway and don’t have a problem with it.

Anything multi day i have a battery with me anyhow.
 
Unlikely. Activity tracking has been on Apple Watch for quite some time, yet in 2021 Apple fell 3% points YoY due to intensified competition
Apple's share of the growing market fell (from 32.9% to 30.1% not actually 3% despite the quote), but their unit sales increased YoY (just not as fast as the market increased). As is also common, they took a disproportionate share of revenue and profit (50% of the revenue on 30% of the sales). This is a pattern we have seen before. Apple takes the bulk of the profit in the smart phone market with well under 50% of the sales.
Garmin when from 4.3% of the market to 4.6% - mostly from an increase at the low end.

Since we are looking at stats, according to the same source, in q1 2022, Apple's market share increased to 36% and Garmin's fell to 4%.

This matters to us as customers for only one reason. In order for these companies to fund development they need to have sales and profit. Volume makes it possible to build one's own custom silicon, it makes it possible to sign carrier deals, satellite deals, etc.

If Garmin's market share shrinks too much they either have to raise prices and hope the market is OK with that, cut R&D or exit the market.
 
Again, being tethered to a power socket multiple times a day even for 15-20 minutes at a time means one must be close to a city at all times. That hardly yells outdoors to me.
Nope. People routinely carry battery packs to increase use time. Same is true for phones and other devices.
 
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