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Why do I still need Strava?

Hi. I am wondering for a while: Why can Garmin connect not have some of the basic feats of Strava on route comparison, others’ routes in an area, to name a few, on top of the good health stats you have? Would make it an easy choice to stay within Garmin ….the Strava social stuff and kudo bla bla, pictures of people’s cappuccino, etc. is annoying
I’d rather have one neat app, ….

Same for route planning, for example. You are the masters of maps and tracking, why leaving This lunch for others to eat?

in case you work on it: great. Cant wait. If not: comon…. Bye. A loyal Garmin Watch user since 20 years

0 e7andy over 2 years ago

I think it is a business decision. Garmin is a hardware company. The software (Garmin Connect) is free so they make no money on that. The development team for Garmin Connect is probably not that big so they work very slowly.

Garmin got no incentive to create a great routing software since it will cost a lot of money to develop and maintain and they will make zero money doing that. Let the other companies do that at no cost for Garmin.

For Strava it is all about the software. The got a subscription based business model which finance the development of the software. They are not developing any hardware so they are not really a competitor to Garmin.

0 JanGG over 2 years ago in reply to e7andy

Well, yes. However- today I have no barrier of exit to go to Suunto or the other brands. If Garmin had a cooL ecosystem, I would think probably 2x before a switch. Garmin devices are good - but why not building more around it?

0 e7andy over 2 years ago in reply to JanGG

Maybe. It is a big cost to take and it might not be worth it. It is easier and inline with their business model to just make good sports watches to make people stay with the brand. I don't think the software will make people stay or make customers switch from other brands. The customers look at the cool hardware and do the switch because of that. The software is just a bonus and most serious athletes use other services anyway with a lot better analysis tools.

I see that you ask for seeing routes from other users. You can do that now in Garmin Connect. Some comparing can be done. You can compare up to 4 activities with each other.