I'd sell my Vivoactive 3 in a heartbeat to buy the Instinct if it supported Connect IQ. Why in the world would they design a $300 watch that was incompatible with Connect IQ?
Connect IQ is not only watch faces. There are many simple apps out there which are very useful. I think that garmin COULD enable CIQ for the instinct they just don't do it because it will eat out the sales of more expensive watches. It's a pity, because I would buy and resell 100 or 1000 Instinct watches if only I could put a small app on it.
Okay, you add CIQ to have what would surely be a minuscule number of third-party watch faces and apps that would have to specially designed for the Instinct's low res dual-screen setup, add wayyyyyy more memory to store the aforementioned downloads (and add user stress dealing with third party bugginess! :-D ), lose battery endurance as third party software sucks it up, add Garmin development time and support... and surely you've just inflated the Instinct's price past a budget adventurer/fitness watch, to be closer to that of the higher tier watches with this feature set.
Perhaps that would still be attractive for some, but I must say the current price and feature set were just about perfect for my needs. Sure, there are some configuration options for display fields, that I'd like, which are missing, but perhaps a better path to getting them is asking Garmin for a rev to the firmware. Not going down the road outlined in my first paragraph :-)
Thus, overall I treat the Instinct's lack of CIQ as a positive feature. Not a negative.
Your analysis is pure BS. And should apply to any smartwatch then. I just said that the instinct has many good things including price. Being able to add small apps (even for personal use and not in a store) would be great and increase the value. The only reason they don't do that is to avoid people to add a few features available only in more expensive models. That's it.
by the way, I also have a Fenix 5X which I use for everything and every day thanks to 2-3 apps that make it really perfect. I would buy a samsung smart watch if they only could bear 10ATM of pressure.
I have no problems buying expensive things. I just think that if garmin will allow some small apps on the Inctinct it will sell way better than it does.
I just think that if garmin will allow some small apps on the Inctinct it will sell way better
To what end? If they add CIQ support, what's the next addition they'll need to make to make you happy? The Instinct was designed to be a rugged outdoor device. The only option prior to the Instinct was a Fenix series watch. The Instinct was designed with omissions to fill the missing gap with an affordable watch where you didn't have to pay the price of a Fenix. Now you want the Instinct at it's reduced price and the features that were omitted to make that price possible? I love these post where people want to pay for a cheaper device, want features from a more expensive higher end device and then try and justify their reasoning with "It would sell better.", or "It wouldn't be hard for Garmin to do.".
lol I have the feeling only garmin employees are answering here. Having small apps would still be "omitting" the bigger and better ones but would give users some flexibility. I will quit answering here since the answers are heavily biased. In all forums people is avoiding the instinct just because of the lack of CIQ. Without CIQ the instinct costs even too much when any fitness watch can do the same. Keep arguing alone. I am not playing along. Bye.
