What features does the Fenix 9 need to have to make you upgrade?

I guess it is simple: a bug free, stable firmware and a battery life as advertised would be amazing!

With a stable software under the hood I would buy it immediately (no need for hardware upgrades - the hardware is great) ;-)

Would truly like to be able to connect to gym equipment like Apple Watches it's just that simple Apple Connects so simply. Why isn't Garmin that simple. Also Garmin Pay is another issue I have never encountered any issue with Apple Pay but Garmin has that issue. And Garmin Watches don't have wireless charging need to get rid of the propriety charging that's so yesterday. With the Bluetooth set to expire in June will Garmin finally get on board with connectivity to Bluetooth devices.

Would truly like to be able to connect to gym equipment like Apple Watches it's just that simple Apple Connects so simply. Why isn't Garmin that simple. Also Garmin Pay is another issue I have never encountered any issue with Apple Pay but Garmin has that issue. And Garmin Watches don't have wireless charging need to get rid of the propriety charging that's so yesterday. With the Bluetooth set to expire in June will Garmin finally get on board with connectivity to Bluetooth devices.

what do you mean bluetooth expires in june?

The ANT+ membership program and ANT+ product certification programs, along with associated engineering support will discontinue on June 30, 2025. In anticipation of these changes, the ANT+ Adopter Agreement was updated on January 3, 2025.

Reason for the Changes

ANT+ was developed in 2004 as a low-power wireless communications standard and has been an essential part of cycling and fitness ecosystems for the past twenty years. However, there is currently a changing regulatory landscape that would require substantial ANT+ redevelopment which would also break compatibility across the established ecosystem of products. Since most of the value for ANT+ is based on compatibility, redesigning the system to meet the new standards is not a feasible path forward.

The Rise of BLE

Bluetooth Low Energy has emerged as the dominant standard for wireless communication in fitness devices. Several factors contribute to its success:

• Universal Adoption: BLE is integrated into virtually every modern smartphone, wearable, and tablet, creating a massive ecosystem.
• Regulatory Compliance: BLE is regularly updated to meet evolving data security and privacy standards.
• Ease of Development: BLE offers a straightforward platform for developers, with advanced features like multi-device pairing.

These advantages, combined with Apple never adopting ANT+, have made BLE the preferred choice for most new fitness devices, accelerating the decline of ANT+.

My mistake not Bluetooth it's ANT+ that's going to expire to be with BLE Bluetooth there not going to stop supporting the ANT+ but will have to adapt the BLE Protocols 

Ooow, got it. Good, old, trusty ANT+ is dying. Now, we'll have much more issues... :D

It can have all features I want but the price is way too high these days. So no...I will stay with my Fenix7 and if I have to replace it the price of the watch is most important.
And if Garmin doesn't still fixes bugs quick (such as issues with maps, battery drain...) I will surely consider other brands too.

sis651 said:

Good, old, trusty ANT+ is dying

Here's DCR's take:

[https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/01/the-begining-of-the-end-for-ant-wireless.html]

As I mentioned earlier on, the single biggest dagger to ANT+ is the EU RED, and the need to encrypt data. All of this would require a massive overhaul of ANT+, breaking backward compatibility with tens (if not hundreds) of millions of devices. Setting aside whether or not consumers actually want their live heart rate data at the gym encrypted, that’s where we find ourselves. As a result, Garmin has announced the following changes:

– They are discontinuing membership programs/fees: Up until now, there were different membership tiers of ANT+ that companies/startups could join. These had fees, though relatively minor. Still, Garmin says it wouldn’t be right to charge companies for a membership that doesn’t have long-term viability in it.
– They are discontinuing certification programs: Companies could submit products to be certified as compliant with standards. Some companies like Wahoo took this quite seriously, and sent everything. As of March 31st, ANT+ will stop accepting certification submissions. And as of June 30th, they’ll stop certifying new products.
– They are ceasing development of new ANT+ Profiles: No surprise here, there’s no new development/expansion of ANT+ profiles.
– They are however continuing to ensure ANT+ is available on silicon: This ensures that ANT+ is still available on chipset providers for a long time to come. As one might expect, there are millions of devices, both from a sensor and display (e.g., watch/bike computer) standpoint, that still want to use ANT+ connections. Garmin says they’re working to ensure these chipset providers continue to make dual ANT+/Bluetooth chipsets.
– All documentation to be made fully available online: Certain tier ANT+ members could access more detailed documentation than lower tiers. This basically makes all ANT+ documents available to everyone.

All of this basically means that your ANT+ devices will continue to work just fine, and we’ll actually probably continue to see ANT+ devices made by companies like Garmin/Wahoo/etc for quite some time as well. That’s because there are workarounds to the EU RED requirements, such as notifying the user. Or, simply assuming that portions of the EU RED will get delayed yet again.

...

What Happens Next for Consumers:

The answer to this section headline is simple: Back to walled gardens.

Of course, that was already mostly the trend the last 4-5 years. Unfortunately, the COVID era further cemented that by eliminating various interoperability conferences/events that had occurred prior. Adding to that is the heavy shift towards startup tech companies that have largely eschewed standards as well, be it protocol or file format.

While one might assume Bluetooth SIGs would be the answer going forward, history and current company commentary have very clearly indicated otherwise. I’ve yet to find a single sports tech company that wants to deal with pushing forward new device profiles with the Bluetooth SIG. Companies don’t see that as a viable route to success, and certainly not worth their time and headaches.

Instead, companies like Garmin say they’re going to work to make private profiles more available. I asked Garmin, for example, about the radar profile, for which Garmin has had a private Bluetooth implementation available for years now. They give that to some companies upon request, to implement within their apps. They didn’t have (yet) a specific firm answer for how that’ll look going forward, but instead pointed to Wahoo’s early release a decade ago of their trainer control protocols as an example of the likely direction.

For those that don’t remember the early 2010 protocol days of Wahoo smart trainers, they basically created their own trainer control standard, and then published the API/SDK on a website for all to use. That quickly made Wahoo’s KICKR trainer protocol the de facto standard for a period before the ANT+ FE-C standard came into play.

Garmin has plenty of history of doing variants of that, both within the ANT+ sphere, but also their Connect IQ developer programs. But whether they actually do so is a different matter. In the trainer space, Garmin/Wahoo/Elite/Zwift all kinda quietly work together on various protocol things, but they don’t often reach the finish line in a public way.

The sports tech industry needs some replacement for what the ANT+ Symposium did for over a decade, both in terms of an event to talk protocols (with competitors no less), but also the backend process to keep companies aligned to standards for the other 51 weeks of the year. Unfortunately, I don’t see how that happens going forward.

Until then, the good news is our ANT+ devices will continue to keep working.