VO2max Petition

I support this. I miss having the VO2 reading on my Apple Watch. This alone may make me return my Instinct to BestBuy after using it for only 3 days. 

I totally agree. How can I monitor my progress objectively ... if I don't have access to VO2max? I think this function is the basis is that it must be present on all trackers of this type. thanks Garmin! :)

Perhaps Garmin, could (of course) resign profits, and since the Covid-19 exists, stop speculating and activate the oxygen monitor. Don't you think so?

5827187 said:

since the Covid-19 exists, stop speculating and activate the oxygen monitor

Are you certain the Instinct has the PulseOx sensor?  I don't have the Instinct, but in pictures I see 3 green HR sensors in a triangle.  As far as I know the watches with PulseOx have 4 rows stacked alternating between green and (PulseOx) red. 

5827187 said:

Perhaps Garmin, could (of course) resign profits, and since the Covid-19 exists, stop speculating and activate the oxygen monitor. Don't you think so?

The Instinct does not have the necessary hardware (PulseOx sensor) to do this.

HTH

Wrong. The Instinct has the same sensor as the older Garmin models such as the Fenix 5 series which has - you guessed it - also Pulse OX. You don't need the newer sensor for Pulse OX.

Purely a software limitation.

austria1982 said:

Purely a software limitation.

... and also likely a licence limitation too. Garmin does not necessairly have the right to use the VO₂Max algorithms on Instinct, if the license from FirstBeat for Instinct does not include it from the beginning.

Yes, please

Exactly - Garmin likely pays licensing fees for FirstBeat features on a per-device basis, so to keep the Instinct at its ridiculously low price point they had to leave out some stuff. Most serious runners buy a FR or Fenix, whereas most users of the Instinct couldn't care less about their VO2 Max and probably don't even know what it is. So it seems to me like the omission makes sense, from a price-point perspective. There's a reason $149 laptops don't usually come with Windows - they wouldn't be able to license it for that device and keep the price point so low. It's a similar scenario for Instinct. If VO2 Max is important to you, there are lots of other pricier options to pick from that include it. But it doesn't make sense for them to jack up the price of the Instinct for the very small minority of users who want it to have a VO2 Max license.

They may include it with the Instinct 2, with it likely being a slightly higher pricepoint than Instinct 1 they might have more wiggle-room to fit in more licensed features. But it's extremely unlikely they'll pay significant money to add this feature to these very popular watches that were never marketed as having VO2 Max. It's not like they're having any trouble selling the Instinct as it is.

And that's all in addition to the fact that economically it doesn't make any sense for them to close the delta between Instinct and the more expensive watches. Any features they add to the less expensive models means people have less reason to buy the more expensive models.

Please do