I realize that the app isn't a huge concern for most of the apple watch users however they've had years to clean it up and nothing if anything it is even more convoluted than its ever been.
This has not been a focus of Apple’s until now. In this last release they added better support for swimming, and added first party support for Sleep Tracking and Triathlons, in the previous release they improved the ability to create multi-activity workouts (still not great, but much better than it was). While all the scientific studies I have been able to find show Garmin’s sleep tracking among the least accurate, those that have tested Apple’s sleep tracking show it as the best in class.
Most garmin users report loving the connect app and how easy it is to see all our info in one spot.
It does seem to be something many/most Garmin users like but still not something Apple is offering as a first party. There are real issues doing something like this with Apple’s Privacy first model, but it is only a year ago that Fitness showed up on the iPad (with the introduction of Fitness+), and that happened with the app being rebuilt in SwiftUI, making a macOS version possible (and pretty easy). As part of the last release, Apple also started offering the ability to share one’s health data with one’s healthcare providers (something Garmin Health has been discussing but I cannot find any providers or Electronic Medical Records (EMR) companies actually doing it, while Apple integrates with the (at least) the two largest in the United States. I would be surprised if Apple ever offered anything like Garmin Connect’s web accessible health data solution, but I guess we will have to see.
Apple has all the tools they need to perfect their line but have relied too much on apps like work outdoors, athletic and sleep apps to do all the presenting of the info and that doesn't seem to be changing.
Apple only started offering any first party sleep tracking a year ago and as part of watchOS 9 have really done a lot more. Hard for us to know for sure until more people have played with it now that it is generally available, but it does seem that Apple went from nothing to best in class in a bit over a year. That is the advantage of having lots of money to throw at a problem when you feel it is important.
I am not sure how you can say that it does not seem to be changing when just over a year Apple had no publicly available first party sleep tracking and now has best in class sleep tracking. Apple went from having no support for triathlons and now has basic support. You are right that Apple relies on its App ecosystem and open APIs to fill in gaps in their offerings, and to provide for things they are unlikely to ever do.
Workoutdoors and HealthFit are both one time purchases. RunGap is free with an annual purchase option for some additional functionality supporting transferring data automatically between to/from some other services. I am not sure which app you mean when you say Athletic (there are a lot of apps with that as part of their names and none seem to match your description).
Some of those apps even require subscriptions so in the end the $800 ultra really costs $10 for cellular
No, an LTE subscription is not required. My BF has an LTE Series 6 and has never had service. He got the more expensive Apple Watch for the peace of mind of having it for emergencies. Even without service, one can still call emergency services in over 100 countries. Although I am curious how you consider this required, when it is not really even an option on any Garmin watches (their $6 LTE does not include phone calls, email, messaging or personal data).
I cannot find an app that meets this description, so I cannot comment on it, but I do not use it and have not seen it mentioned by others.
$5-$10 per month for Apple music,
How is this required? Putting playlists of one’s own music on an Apple Watch is trivial, and if one wanted, one could $25 a year and have Music Match that makes all one’s personally owned music available for streaming anywhere. However, none of that is a requirement for using the watch, any more than a Spotify subscription. Amusingly, pretty much every review of the Garmin music functionality has said it was awful to the point of being unusable.
like $8 for work outdoors
Workoutdoors is $4.99, one time purchase with no upgrade fees. HealthFit is the same. They support family sharing, so they are good for all 6 people in one’s family. In our case, four of us have Watches, and have had both of these apps for quite a while, so we have paid less than $0.84 per person per watch. That should drop to $0.62 in a few days when we upgrade watches.
and so on and so forth (I realize that spotify costs to put onto the garmin watches).
Yes it does and as far as I can tell, cannot be streamed over Garmin’s $6 a month LTE subscription (for the one or two watches that support it). It is funny that you include the cost of an optional LTE subscription as
Even using apple music on the watch while doing an activity (for me) has been hit or miss - on every iteration of AW ive tried.
I cannot speak to your experience, but that is not a complaint I have seen often. I am also not sure what you mean, are using saying that you have not been able to play music while you were doing a workout, or that you were trying to use some app that integrates music and it did not work? As another data point, what versions of Apple Watch have you had and were you a regular user or trying someone else’s?
Garmin doesn't have the prettiest or most trendiest watches nor do they have a good cellular option really but most of us dont really care about that as were primarily using the watch for sports and our phones for phones and why for the love of God did they introduce the enduro which is essentially a fenix is beyond me.
Their product line is certainly very confusing, with many too many very similar options.
