Forerunner 945 only second quality in Garmin Ecosystem? Bugfixes are not done because why bother if you can sell Fenix watches?

Obviously fixes for the Fenix 6 are higher prioretized than for the 945 currently. Hardly anything to be surprised about, it is newer, more expensive and the highest end series.

Sure it would be nice if Garmin were to put more development power into fixing bugs across their far-too-many devices, but being surprised that Fenix 6 is the favorite son right now is naive.

officialy, there are different teams for each device. 
Dont forget: The Forerunner is not the poor mans Fenix, its the top end multisport watch if you check Garmins own category. 
Assuming they have the same hardware underlying and seeing the code is done already, its (again) just bad management. 

Imagine if you had spent that much more on the Fenix 6 and things weren't quite right - wouldn't you expect that Garmin fix their most expensive/newest watch first? I think that's what's happening. I'm definitely hoping these fixes will trickle down to the 945 platform.

FWIW, I have a 945.

Fredderic said:

Obviously fixes for the Fenix 6 are higher prioretized than for the 945 currently. Hardly anything to be surprised about, it is newer, more expensive and the highest end series.

Thought this is the MARQ series or is that also already abandoned like Fenix 5+ and Forerunner 945?

So the only way to stay current now is to buy a new high-priced watch every 6 months to get bugs timely fixed that Garmin introduced, like treadmill calibration?

So, you have bought a VW Golf and are not allowed to enter a "Umweltzone" because of VWs "bugs" in their engine software. Its ok for you they fix the more expensive Cars first and you have to pay for public transport even if you could take the car (which you still pay insurance and taxes for).

I expect them to get their fixes to all devices in the platform in approximately the same time, not months apart.
Treadmill fix is 3 weeks old for example. How long do you say its ok to wait? Until spring?

I totally agree, we all should get the fixes as soon as possible, but Garmin as a company will probably try to keep the customers of its newest and costliest products happy. Again, imagine you paid that much for something you'd want it to be flawless - Garmin who has charged you a lot for that has good business incentive to keep you happy. (Note,not that the 945 was cheap - far from it)

I'm not saying that's the right thing to do, and this is just speculation trying to figure out what is happening. Only Garmin knows why they aren't fixing 945 problems sooner. Again, I hope we 945 owners will benefit from the fixes.

BeneGi said:

How long do you say its ok to wait? Until spring?

Will be released shortly after the fix for Open Water Swimming. Or Live Track. Or...

Leaving the discussion as I am not really any more a valid discussion partner. Will sell my 945 this week and I am out. Really fed up and appalled by all of this and hoped it will get better after DCRs damaging article. Well, it got worse. Truly sad, always had a love/hate relationship with Garmin and was a loyal customer. Enough is enough though.

Not exactly sure how I got pulled into this, nor this quote: "But I think your position "I don't talk a lot about bugs because they can fix them"".

I don't say that at all. In fact, I say the exact opposite. I never believe companies will fix bugs until they do. I discuss the issues in my reviews that I personally run across. Or in some cases if the review is far enough down the road, if I'm seeing widespread issues that impact lots of people - then I'll bring it up. But I'm not going to compile every issue that everyone has ever seen on the Garmin Forums and try and validate/repro them.

You can see in my Fenix 6 (or FR945) reviews which issues I've seen and discussed those. Or, read my sprawling Garmin Bug Post from back in June. Seriously.

As other peoples have noted, while there is some shared code base, the reality is that two teams as part of two different organizational groups work on the different watches. They have different timelines, and that can also include feature releases. So sometimes if something slides a bit due to QA issues, that may results in bug fixes holding up. While I think we all want bug fixes faster, we don't want bug fixes that introduce more bug fixes (or bigger bugs).

FYI: A FR945 firmware update is working it's way through distribution today as we speak in fact, if you're not already getting prompted to see an update on your device, you will by later today/this morning. PacePro is part of that update.

Dont forget the 945 costs the same as the baseline F6! And the Forerunner costs a lot also.

If you take a look above, I got a lot of Fenix watches and none where flawless. Everybody buying more than one Garmin product knows this.

Im on the same way. I really loved the "end state" of the Fenix5 and bought the FR945 because of maps and music. I really love the state the Index is now in (hating them for the way). My Edge 830 with Varia RTL510 is fine (except the annoying auto zoom bug).

I don't want to buy a Fenix only because of their bad software management. 

Which "damaging article" do you mean? I think, there should be more pieces about the software quality issues Garmin always have and their handling of those.


In which direction are you leaving?
A lot of friends have activity trackers from Garmin, so the social factor there is also a point...