Yesterday my device was working fine. This morning, I discovered that my Connect app was now version 5. All my data was gone. The "instructions" that I saw on the screen made absolutely no sense at all to me. I have no idea of how to get back to where I was before the Garmin update. All my watch now does is tell the time. I have a childhood Mickey Mouse watch that does that. I saw no links to anything that would help. I have a now an essentially useless watch that is functionally equivalent to a brick.
Over at the Google Play Store, I signed in to do a review of Garmin connect app. When I try to write one, all is get is an unending spinner. I cannot post a review there.
The scale of this screw up has made Garmin the Boeing of the consumer device industry.
The screw up raises again an issue of the credibility of the whole concept of the world of the internet of things. The Garmin screw up only affected my watch. But suppose an equivalent screw up of a refrigerator app turned my freezer off and everything in it spoiled. Are they going to tell me my $4,500 working internet refrigerator is no loner supported, and I must buy a new one. Suppose I come home one night and discover that I cannot get in my house because the door lock company updated their app and it no longer works with my lock. Suppose I go to my General Motors car and discover that GM decided to no longer support Android 11 on my phone to get in the locked car. Suppose some manager at Garmin who pulled this screw up gets transferred to Garmin aviation where he pulls the same trick and an airplane with a pilot with a no longer working app takes a plane down. Can you rely on anyone to support tomorrow what works today?