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Better support for lower end phones

Former Member over 10 years ago

Dear Garmin

I remember Garmin as a market leader in Navigation systems, however I am sad to see that they are now changing. Hardware makers seem to be dreadful in making software, and to be honest (if you ask yourselves) it was the software in your navigation systems which made them functional.

The current marketing manager for Garmin must be a pied piper, for the strategy seems to be to only support high end phones, and the attitude I've seen on the community here seems to be to look down upon those without the latest and greatest tech ... to me this is a failure.

I recommend reading an excellent article on Wired
(here http://www.wired.com/2014/01/smartphone-fitness-tracker/)
which delves into how you can use your high end phone to actually be a fitness tracker. They make the point that if you have one of the phones (which Garmin tell you you have to have to use for instance their Vivofit) then you will not need the tracker because you have a phone that will do that and more.

To me its is incredibly short sighted on the part of Garmin to ignore the people who have only lower end phones and push them to use the higher end phones. Short sighted because indeed by them going out and buying those phones they will realise that Garmin actually brings very little to the table.

Creative Destruction is a term which describes how the introduction of one technology results in the destruction of another (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction)

Creative destruction describes the "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one."

So by chastising me that my phone and computer were not enough you have actually been encouraging me to try out a newer phone and discover that "hey, I don't even need the Garmin ..."

Round of applause for your marketing strategy.

After my experience with the vivofit you can be sure that without a strategy change I will never be tempted to buy another Garmin product. I'll just use the smartphone instead.

In the future people will perhaps only remember Garmin ... for they will be gone.

0 jim_m_58 over 10 years ago

Dear Garmin

I remember Garmin as a market leader in Navigation systems, however I am sad to see that they are now changing. Hardware makers seem to be dreadful in making software, and to be honest (if you ask yourselves) it was the software in your navigation systems which made them functional.

The current marketing manager for Garmin must be a pied piper, for the strategy seems to be to only support high end phones, and the attitude I've seen on the community here seems to be to look down upon those without the latest and greatest tech ... to me this is a failure.

I recommend reading an excellent article on Wired
(here http://www.wired.com/2014/01/smartphone-fitness-tracker/)
which delves into how you can use your high end phone to actually be a fitness tracker. They make the point that if you have one of the phones (which Garmin tell you you have to have to use for instance their Vivofit) then you will not need the tracker because you have a phone that will do that and more.

To me its is incredibly short sighted on the part of Garmin to ignore the people who have only lower end phones and push them to use the higher end phones. Short sighted because indeed by them going out and buying those phones they will realise that Garmin actually brings very little to the table.

Creative Destruction is a term which describes how the introduction of one technology results in the destruction of another (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction)

So by chastising me that my phone and computer were not enough you have actually been encouraging me to try out a newer phone and discover that "hey, I don't even need the Garmin ..."

Round of applause for your marketing strategy.

After my experience with the vivofit you can be sure that without a strategy change I will never be tempted to buy another Garmin product. I'll just use the smartphone instead.

In the future people will perhaps only remember Garmin ... for they will be gone.

I have used Google Fit since it came out on Andrioid. My phone has the proper sensors to measure activity. And in one word (well, 2) it SUCKS. All you get is steps by day and calories. No tie into anything else, and it does seem to drain the battery on the phone. No where close to prime time...

And personally, when I go out for a walk/run/5k, etc, I leave my phone at home. I don't want to think about emails or texts! (I have a iPod for tunes). An independent tracker (even if it is "smart" like the fr920xt or the upcoming vivosmart), that technology will be around for some time. I don't think many people would want to sleep with their phone strapped to their arm to track sleep! And most cell phones need to charged about every day, so what happens during those times?

BTW, I have a lower end phone, and it works with Google Fit. Using a cell is NOT a replacement for a real fitness device, IMHO, and it's more a way vendors can get people started, and then sell them a real fitness device.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I have used Google Fit since it came out on Andrioid.

thats what Ive read about google fit ... try those in that link.

I don't think many people would want to sleep with their phone strapped to their arm to track sleep

the sleep app simply monitors your sounds ... if you'd read the link. I sleep with the phone beside me its my alarm clock (seems many millions do too)

I guess that phones will never threaten navigator GPS units market either ... oh but wait, they did.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/511786/a-shrinking-garmin-navigates-the-smartphone-storm/

. . .
. . .
. . .

---------------------- ^ think somewhere over here ... outside the nine dots

PS: one of the comments in that technology review really hit the nail on the head with my experience here

over the last 10 years, Garmin's "response" has been to cut their costs with lower quality, less responsive support, etc., etc. They've put into place "short cuts" in their design process and are relying more and more on accounting and engineering design groups to dictate features, functionality and (very importantly) implementation into their products. In so doing, they are by-passing one of their greatest strong points of the past - having a thorough understanding of what the end user wanted and the functions being implemented in manner in which made it truly useful (and valuable) to that end user.

Sadly, "Customer Support / Service" is now all but non-existent, with any level of product purchased.

a bunch of us in my office have been interested in a system for activity tracking ... they've all been equally disappointed with my experience here.

0 jim_m_58 over 10 years ago

the sleep app simply monitors your sounds ...

If I pass gas at night, am I awake or sleeping soundly? :) It seems you never share a bed with anyone, as based on sounds, who's making that sound, be it just turning over, or whatever...

Why is it that you are so against Garmin? Is your job making you wear a tracker? Do you want your job to buy you a better cell phone instead of a tracker?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Why is it that you are so against Garmin?

because the product has been such a let down,
because my intial experience of the people here was to deride my level of equipment and my commitment to spending on upgrading,
because the product does not actually perform as one would reasonably expect (but there is the fine print that an insurance company would be proud of),
because my first day with the product (in trying to learn it) was fraught with "server outages" which of course I could not understand till I found this unsympathetic place.

I mean I get it, you guys must be sick of people bitching about this product ... perhaps that should indicate that there is something more broadly wrong....

Is your job making you wear a tracker? Do you want your job to buy you a better cell phone instead of a tracker?

no, I undertook to wear it to gather data for a personal research project (related to fitness) ... I'm beginning to feel that I've wasted a week and wasted a couple of hundred bucks on stuff which 1) is not functional 2) not reliable and (because I'm trying to get it to work) I probably don't need now (because I only bought the android tablet to get this stupid thing to work).

Why are you so "pro garmin" ... do they pay you something?

PS: I understand that you have nothing to offer in the way of help, so if you are unwilling to or unable to help, please just don't comment. This isn't a game to me (although it seems to be for you) and I'm genuinely frustrated with a product and there is no support and no real documentation worth a rats.

0 jim_m_58 over 10 years ago

It seems to me that your expectations are too high for any tracker on the market today. I've used 5 different brands for testing, and have seen the pluses and minuses myself. I just returned one from Polar last week in fact.

And in a well over a year of testing these brands, over all, I find Garmin the best (YMMV). Are there things I'd like to see "tweaked" in how Garmin does stuff? Sure - but over all, it does what I want. If you've only had the Garmin for a week, why not return it and try another brand? Maybe another brand will be closer to what you want.

As far as "low end phones", devices like the vivosmart need two things in a phone as a minimum - Andriod 4.3 or greater, and BT 4 hardware.

4.3, because that's when "Bluetooth Smart" (aka BLE) was added to Andriod, and BT 4 HW, because that too is required for BLE. (I have a tablet with Andriod 5, but BT 3 HW, so it won't work, for example)