Did Garmin abandon the R50?

c.reiter 6 days ago

Dear Garmin Team,

as a client, I am asking myself if I may banked on the wrong product.

Garmin has been competely silent about updates or a product roadmap for the R50. We all invested in a device with a hefty - but justified - price tag. However, the justification crumbles in case the product will remain in its current state.

We all know, the software needs refinements and a couple of additional features to make use of the powerful and (as I see it) extremely well engineered hardware platform.

Sensible Feature Requests have been made in this forum, to just name a few: Improvement of the Pratice Range with a configurable flag distance, Club Gapping, maybe Low Point as a new data point, etc, etc.

When I look over to the R10 forum, I see people there share similar concerns to the ones of the R50 users. Also they are awaiting updates and improvements.

I am of the opinion that if Garmin wants to become a serious player in the launch monitor market, it needs to become more vocal to its users.

Garmin, please don't let us down and give us some comfort that we own a product which has a future.

Thank you,

Christian

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0 HeroShots 6 days ago

Wish they would make it open source to allow devs to really take advantage of the hardware.

0 JAM050821 5 days ago

I reached out this morning via email. The whole community is getting frustrated with the lack of communication and updates, myself included. Hoping to hear back directly from someone on the Garmin Support Team.

0 JAM050821 5 days ago in reply to JAM050821

I got a response.

In short, "Their team is actively reviewing issues and will respond via email and the forum when they have updates."

0 c.reiter 5 days ago in reply to HeroShots

That would be a great move, but in my opinion it can only be an additional option, not the only way offered.

I see reponsibility (and also a great business chance) for Garmin to equip products with long-term usability. If matter continue like they are, I'll for sure not chose Garmin next time I buy a lauch monitor.

0 c.reiter 5 days ago in reply to JAM050821

This very much sounds like if they had resorted to bare minimum service, not really promising.

0 3952987 4 days ago

There has definitely been a reduction in engagement in these forums from Garmin and what feels like a reduction in regular enhancements to the R50 software.

I hope that the reduction in regular enhancements is due to a much bigger release coming soon but I might be kidding myself.

Garmin Cody in particular was a fantastic link between this forum and Garmin but he's not been here for a while now.

0 c.reiter 4 days ago in reply to 3952987

100% agreed on Garmin Cody! His presence made a difference.

0 JAM050821 4 days ago in reply to JAM050821

I had some more emails back and forth with their support team. I specifically asked them about the reduction in Garmin's engagement in this forum.

These are the words from them

"we've actually increased engagement from our internal moderators across Garmin forums exponentially including weekend coverage"

"It is important to remember that the forums are first and foremost a place for user-to-user interactions"

"We as a greater internal moderation team look for and track potential issues and escalate to quality when necessary. Keep in mind we still have several external moderators who do a fantastic job of helping and supporting the community."

"Now, I highly encourage any Garmin user who happens to encounter a time sensitive disruption to reach out to our Support team directly. It always has been and still is the absolute fastest way to reach us. For those who wish to communicate via forums exclusively, we will continue to listen and engage when appropriate."