It would be great if there could be an app that could either pull training plans from https://connect.garmin.com/modern/training-plan onto the Vivoactive, or replicate the training plan input screen on either the watch or from another website.
I disagree. Some people act as if highly portable general purpose computing devices such as mobile tablets and smartphone handsets somehow define “the gadget/technology industry”, when there are far more gadgets that are basically appliances sold to deliver a predefined set of features and functions as marketed to end-users, without any room for repurposing or further exploitation of the hardware capabilities.
I don't have a problem with people choosing to only see smartphones and use it as their personal frame of reference for everything, as long as they can handle the reality of the consumer technology marketplace and swallow the disappointment as it gets served up to them from time to time.
You quoted single line from my post and completely missed the point.
In the gadget/technology industry, the common practice is to charge a device based on the hardware specifications-capabilities.
That does not mean that everyone does it like that. But from garmin perspective, they do it:
A Fenix f.e. has a different case, a barometric temeperature/hight measure sensor, glonass, more storage, faster processor, etc. The hardware is indeed better!
And the software is more useful.
If they wouldn´t do it like that, every garmin watch have to cost 600$, all features are the same and there would not be any starter device.
My car manufacturer takes money for "home lightening". That´s just a software setup to enable frontlight on unlock... They charge about 200$ for that.
Windows Home is cheaper then Windows Professional. :eek: But my hardware is still the same :p
This is what you get when there are no actual competitors for garmin in the fitness wearable industry... :)
You jest, right? Surely you don't meant that:
1) Garmin produces the best devices - no other manufacture can compete with them, or
2) Garmin has a monopoly - there are no other devices in the market place.
When I first got the va (back when it came out), someone used the term "Jack of all Trades, but master of none", meaning that it did a whole bunch of things, but didn't excel at any. It was a general purpose watch, and not really specific for anything. The same can be said for the va-hr.
Today, if you look at the va-hr and fr 23x, price wise, the are in the same range, but different watches. "Forerunner" says it. The 23x is a running watch and has far more running related functions, but also lacks the wide variety of sports on the va-hr. The 23x doesn't even have a native app to record walking, for example. It's kind of what type of features that are important to you for what you buy (I have both a va-hr and fr230 btw). In the same way, I doubt a golf watch (one of the Approach line) would really compare to the golf app on a va-hr. Assuming the va-hr and 23x have comparable HW performance (the va-hr is actually a bit better), there's a decision of what to put on which device. It's not like all the 23x (or Approach) things can be added to the va-hr or v/v.
Then you get to things like the fr735, fr920, f3, and (soon) the f5 devices. There a lot there that's well beyond what the va-hr or 23x could do.
I understand I should have read specs more carefully but the problem is that this is my first sports watch and did not know what to look for. I understand Garmin differentiates their products by different features but they could maybe offer additional features for a price if the HW can handle it.
Other idea is to offer in Garmin App additional feature that could run training plans and sync with watch (time, HR...) using notifications... Also could be sold for a price...
