Garmin firmware update policy is ridiculous for 2020

I am afraid that is not true. I have a MacBook Pro 2013, and it can still utilize the latest MacOS, and is as fast and faster when they employ Metal than the original. The same goes for Apple watches and phones. iOS 14 will run on an old and small iPhone SE, a device released in 2016. This way Garmin makes dissatisfied customers. And offers more on new entry level devices than one year old flagships. If Apple produced a rugged watch with good battery life, I would never even consider Garmin. In some of our countries we are taking a monthly take home salary or more for a fenix, only to be outdated a few months later. Yes I bought it for what it offers, but this way they make me feel stupid. 

I agree to a point. It’s all about profit and the cost of engineering new firmware to older hardware is not fiscally advantageous. Even Apple drop units based on hardware.

My 2009 i7 iMac runs perfectly well. It’s stuck on High Sierra but works fine. Can Apple make Big Sur run on it? Sure. But even a large organisation like Apple has to dedicate its developer finite resources to their earners. Now my unit can run any form of current Linux OS just fine. The difference is that an open source model allows many many talented resources to code for a vast array of machines. Apple and Garmin can’t do that. They simply don’t have the resources.

Now, I bought a D2 Delta last year and the last firmware update was well over 6 months ago. My partners Fenix 5s has had numerous updates. Why did I get the D2 when I will never use the pilot specific features? It’s a niche product. I just have to suck it up........ would I like new features? Of course. But unless Garmin releases the code as open source, I doubt I will get this. Perhaps bug fixes.... That’s the nature of corporations.

Hi Ilya, this is exactly what happened to me with my Fenix 5 Plus.

Sad truth is

1) Garmin will not backport features.

2) we should not have bought a Garmin watch, if we care about software updates or new features.

3) Posting on this forum about your disappointed will not help.

What I am doing is to tell all people that ask me, not to buy a Garmin and explain my reasoning. Other than that, I post on YouTube and Facebook on posts of Garmin or influencer like DC rainmaker, what I think about the Garmin watches value for money.

It is ultra bad that there are many Garmin customers that feel like this (how much worse can publicity be, when your customers don't support you) but Garmin simply does not care, because people are still buying their very expensive watches.

Only option I see is to flood their social media posts with statements on their quality/customer care. But it's tricky, as e.g. in Facebook, often the same post exists multiple times, so the comments don't stay... it sucks, but what can we do? Only option is, #dontbuyaGarmin (and post your complains using this hashtag). ;-)

Tengo un fenix s plus , es mi 6 Garmin y el peor en funcionamiento de gps, viendo las actualizaciones, mi próximo reloj será de otra marca.

I understand that you are sad by garmins update policy. A bit..

What I see around me (members of an athletics community), they are perfectly happy with their garmin devices and think they are the best.

Most people like their garmins because they have the most features. If you ask whitch features, they cannot name one specific. It just has a lot. 
If I mentioned garmin software has a lot of bugs, they don’t recognize it. If I tell them a function with bugs they tell me they don’t use that function.

tl;dr Most people buy garmins because it has a lot of features. They don’t know which ones or how to use them. They don’t know which features a newer version of a watch has. So they don’t care about update policy. And that’s the kind of users garmin targets.

https://the5krunner.com/2020/06/30/garmin-acquires-firstbeat-strava-next/

Now that Garmin bought Firstbeat, the arguement that the reason why they don’t provide features to older devices would be licensing fees, is gone.

That was a good one!

I get that part. I've come to realize that Garmin is not a company I want to buy products from in the future.

Im not really sure if there is a company taking care of their customers buying premium products out there. However, when my fenix 5 plus doesn't start up in the future, Garmin wont be on the list over products to evaluate. Or perhaps their entry level watches,which seem to get the same functionality as their premium watches.

tobjoh I have enough reasons not to buy Garmin in the future. Their software is buggy and their service, at least here in the Netherlands is lousy.

But here is the thing. What to buy?

I loved Suunto. But when I was in the market for a new watch 3 years ago, the Suunto 9 was an option, but I think it's too big, their software was in beta fase, their back-end software was on the move (away from movescount). Now they seems to have choosen for Google wearOS. Batterylive is a top 1 priority for me. WearOS cannot deliver. 

Polar lacks navigation features. That's also a top priority for me. The follow the line/breadcrumb is enough, and turn by turn notification is very nice. Suunto is the best option. Garmin is fine, Polar lacks behind.

I don't need more data, like sleep analysis, stress, body battery, blood oxygen. Most of them are not very accurate and none of them is useful. At least, that's how I see it.

Al watches have decent GPS, OHR which is useful for 24/7 rest heart rate, but not for workouts. All can tell time and have alarms. 

But if you want great battery live you end up with the top models. And then you also have to pay for the nonsense gimmick features. Too bad. 

I keep telling myself, never Garmin again. I tell other people not to buy Garmin. But when my forerunner 935 dies, over 1 or 2 years, I probably buy a Garmin, because it's the least bad option. Or maybe a Polar, because I haven't tried that brand. 

And in the end, what ever I buy, I have my moments of anger, but most of the time it's fine. Not great, but just fine.