don't buy any Garmin products unless connect+ is cancelled

All the companies will eventually go this way. So your boycott plan is fruitless.

Remember the old days when we didn't have a watch to tell us every bit of minute detail? Can we live without all that data? Yes we can? Can we be healthy without it? Yes we can?

Just because someone pays for Connect+ does not mean they are part of the problem. They have a RIGHT to decide for themselves, just as Garmin has a RIGHT to charge for a product, AND they have the right to charge whatever they want. If the price is too much, they will not gain customers. Most of us will be satisfied with the non-pay version until it becomes of no use, then we will move on.

And would you please post the direct link to back-up your Earnings Call quote. I cannot find find it in your context.

No where in your link does it say that "certain ones" available to users currently, in the unpaid Connect will be moved behind the paywall.

Read the original Earning Call.

I am not here to argue about it. As long as I am concerned you are welcome to give Garmin half of your salary if you so desire. I was made to believe that Garmin offers the most feature rich ecosystem and that when you spend certain amount of money (Fenix 8 for example of 1200 eur) it will be supported and get new features for at least 2 years. As I said this is not expected from Garmin but this is what they did so far so I naturally assumed when I buy the latest and greatest I’ll get future features. Since they do not operate this way anymore nor will I… this is what the message states. Because now its only 4 features tomorrow it will be 40 then it will be we have to increase the price.. and so on. We all know how the services and subscription work. It is up to us to support them or stop them. I am fine with running with only the music in my head :D

Yawn

Couldn't agree more. If connect+ meet KPI then every new feature will be deployed in subscription mode. Stop paying extra money because it's common business behaviour. It's up to users to convince Garmin that they don't want to pay subscriptions on top of current pricing for their premium products. Think about yourself first. Not about the company which care how to show easy profits for stakeholders. 

It seems to me that poeple here have become convinced that their life will be serverly impacted if they no longer have the most minute bits of data throughout the day. How sad that it has become a subject worth ranting about. It's unfair they say, I'm betrayed they say. When you fell in line to purchase that $1000 watch did the box say that all services would remain static for your lifetime?: People want Garmin to change, but did they change direction when TC was replaced? How about the latest version of Connect with the "oh - I can't stand it - I have to cancel...."? Did Garmin fall on it's knees and surrender. No. Why? Because they are going to have our data anyway. New customers won't even care what the system looked like last  year, or even this year. Stop whinning and either use the system or go somewhere else. I for one am tired of seen post after post ranting about the injustice of it all. Move on. My rant is over. I'm done, go on about your life,

BTW: when did Garmin ever put new features on old models? So your assumption was wrong. You bought it, you got what you got, live with it or go somewhere else.

Just to mention one: ECG on Fenix 7 (at least in EU).

It's two different things. Whining about new ux is normal for hardcore users. it's understandable that Garmin sticked to their strategy. But introducing new payable service with features that were available in the core product it's just corporate greediness. There is similar thread in fenix7 forum so I don't want to repeat myself. If you like to pay more money for the same product it's your choice. But if you accept this once then it will be only the beginning of plus, premium, lux and platinum subscriptions.

4411990 said:

Read the original Earning Call.

Ofc the original earning call isn't linked by the5krunner (who needs primary sources amirite), but here's the transcript for anyone who's interested:

seekingalpha.com/.../4779936-garmin-ltd-grmn-q1-2025-earnings-call-transcript

(Garmin's official transcript omits the Q & A, which is where the relevant convo happened)

This is the relevant excerpt:

Joseph Cardoso

No. Got it. That's great to hear. And then maybe switching away from tariffs, it was great to see the release of Connect+. But I guess, Cliff, why now in past discussions, at least anecdotally, there appear to be some reservations about finding the right value to essentially end up charging your customers.

So I guess, what capabilities or what developments prompted you to kind of launch this at this time. And then, obviously, early days, but curious if you can provide any initial indications around customer reception, interaction with Connect+ that might be indicative of increasing appetite to use the app, et cetera. Just curious if there's anything you can share on that front as well.

Cliff Pemble

Yes. I think we've been saying for a while that, that we are evaluating opportunities to have a premium offering on Garmin Connect. And I think the developments of AI and particularly around AI-based insights for our users was one of those things that we felt was important to recognize the value for the investment that it takes to do.

And so we felt like it was the right time, and we do have a very strong user base. Connect+ it certainly doesn't -- isn't required for users, and we're not taking any features away from people that they've had and we still have a strong commitment to develop Garmin Connect and our devices with broad features that are available to everyone.

The certain ones, we will likely reserve for premium offerings and so far, the response has been positive. We're not measuring success in terms of the short-term. This is a long-term thing for us, a very important part of our Fitness segment going forward. So we're going to build on where we started.

Notice that nobody said that all new features will be in Connect+, and in fact they explicitly said that current features will not be moved to Connect+.

(Tbf this is kind of a lie, as a certain feature - customizable dashboards on the home page - was taken away last year, and brought back in a different form in Connect+. Ofc apologists and bloggers will say it isn't the same feature.)

Note that this one sentence was used as the basis for an entire clickbait article:

"The certain ones, we will likely reserve for premium offerings and so far, the response has been positive."

Hey I love hating on Connect+ as much as anyone else and I'm def not gonna pay for it, but:

- Is it shocking that the CEO of Garmin (Cliff Pemble) wants to put a positive spin on Connect+?

- It's also not surprising that he would say that future "premium offerings" would be placed in Connect+. That's literally the whole point of Connect+ - to add premium features that users have to pay for. That's what it was used for when it was launched (for features that they want you to pay more money for), and it makes sense that's what it would be used for in the future

TL;DR I don't see anything in the earnings called which merits any additional outrage over Connect+.

All the CEO said was:

- Connect+ is super successful already (what else do you expect him to say?)

- Connect+ will continue to be used for premium features in the future. (Does anyone expect him to say something else, like "we plan on abandoning Connect+ immediately"?)

There's literally no additional information here.

May as well get mad about Apple telling investors that Apple TV+ will continue to be a paid subscription service where customers can watch shows which are unavailable on other streaming services. Or Spotify releasing a statement that Spotify Premium will continue to cost more than $0.