New features on Fenix 5 Plus

For the why: because Garmin want you to buy new devices. 

I think though that on the long term it would be smarter if Garmin would be a little more pro-costumer-oriented. Like: Make your customers happy, and maybe then they'll buy their next device also from you.

But it seems that for Garmin they have enough customers that are happy enough to buy a new Garmin device. Maybe because they use a 800 $ fitness watch only as a watch or for the occasional fitness tracking, or  maybe because they just accept that the device has many bugs. 

JanH said:

For the why: because Garmin want you to buy new devices. 

I think though that on the long term it would be smarter if Garmin would be a little more pro-costumer-oriented. Like: Make your customers. happy, and maybe then they'll buy their next device also from you.

But it seems that for Garmin they have enough customers that are happy enough to buy a new Garmin device. Maybe because they use a 800 $ fitness watch only as a watch or for the occasional fitness tracking, or  maybe because they just accept that the device has many bugs. 

I totally agreed with you. Garmin is more like a traditional IT company, a little bit arrogant.  

Just wait until Garmin, Apple et al start integrating critical health tracking features (ie blood sugar levels, cytokine count etc) into their products. You're going to see new device iterations at least once a year and you'll feel utterly compelled to upgrade for fear of being blind to something which might be affecting your health.

There's a huge runway for wearable growth in that field and you get the sense that the anguish around upgrades has barely begun.

I think it is a short sighted tipe of attitude the one in which a company only thinks about sales from a new model and completely ignores to upgrade the older ones. (Apple and Google seem to have figured it out)

This will give you a first boost in sales each year, until people realize that the new ones will already be obsolete and forgotten soon and surely feel disappointed and betrayed by the brand. 

Problem is that at the moment Garmin is not facing any real competition and is only going against it's own products. 

Untill others step up their game we will have to see a 1 year old model with no updates and have to pay an average of 700€ for this kind of device. 

Just an FYI, there are tabata training apps in the Connect IQ store.  

I don't agree guys. I came off a Suunto Spartan Ultra, lucky to get a upgrade every 6 months. I had lots of upgrades since I got the F5x+.

Maybe you should buy my old Spartan and then you'll know what it's like to be left out in the cold. 

Are they (Suunto) still trying to figure out intervals?  LOL

To OP: Why didn’t you use the search function for this type of topic and add your opinion to that topic? 

This is a rinse, wash & repeat type of topic. People here are making claims that “their watch isn’t receiving updates” yet even the 2017 “5” received a 14.20 update less than a month ago. Would it be nice if Garmin offered “add on pay features”? Yes but they’re not going too. Everyone’s 5+ watch is more than sufficient for most daily activities and the complaining about not getting the new features from devices coming out in 2019 is quite tiresome.

There isn’t a single company that offers what Garmin offers in these watches. Be happy and if you’re not, then stop buying Smart/Sport watches.

I'm afraid that this validates the fact that competition is lacking. If one of the biggest competitors is so behind there is no reason for them to upgrade a previous model to the new software. 

Iterative updates and bug fixes are ok and really are expected on a 700€ device.