Developer criticism for the software in the 955 watch

Most people say they will buy another brand, but in the end they then buy a Fenix or Epix ;)

well, I'm thinking of trusting Coros, they have good GPS and they're showing that their updates are useful for something. they are continuously updated and their watches have nothing to envy.

I just don’t understand why they can’t just upload the Fenix/Epix/Enduro 2 software as that works well with next to no bugs? I’m an Enduro user and have no complaints what so ever with my software! I can imagine some of the issue is the pricing of watches, as a FR955 can be picked up for a lot less than say the Fenix but in theory on paper they are the same watches just with different build materials. Then you break it down into the software and interaction differences and it’s quite apparent how much they differ! Such a shame as if I was buying a watch again I’d try myself a few quid and go with the FR955 but now I’ve read all these issues I just couldn’t do it!

Come on Garmin save the FR955!

I just don’t understand why they can’t just upload the Fenix/Epix/Enduro 2 software as that works well with next to no bugs? I’m an Enduro user and have no complaints what so ever with my software! I can imagine some of the issue is the pricing of watches, as a FR955 can be picked up for a lot less than say the Fenix but in theory on paper they are the same watches just with different build materials. Then you break it down into the software and interaction differences and it’s quite apparent how much they differ! Such a shame as if I was buying a watch again I’d try myself a few quid and go with the FR955 but now I’ve read all these issues I just couldn’t do it!

Come on Garmin save the FR955!

I am lucky enough to live in a country with very liberal return policies. I bought my 955 around mid November which included an extended return period until January 14th.  I stuck with the 955, submitted bugs, uploaded my watch files etc. but I couldn't do it anymore :(  It still has on paper *all* the features that I want from a running watch but they just don't work right.  Even the ones that are not pure "bugs" are just designed poorly, such as the UI, graphs etc.

I ended up returning it within the return period for a full refund and after being a loyal Garmin user (starting with a GPSMAP 60CSx, remember those?) since 2001 (yup that's 22 years!) I am finally done with Garmin :(  This is pretty sad to me, as I also owned a bunch of Forerunners too.

Garmin has lost all my trust and I cannot see myself ever going back.  I am not going to post what I bought instead as this is purely a criticism of how bad Garmin has turned with their horrible strategy of OS segmentation across all those myriads of products.

Good luck everyone and I hope 955 improves, especially with the 965 adding more headaches (and more fragmentation) around the corner.

Possible reasons I can think of:

* Different microcontroller architecture. (Plausible)

* Different sensor hardware. (Probably not)

* Social and political: different management/product teams/divisions.

For example, in this forum, the Fenix/Epix/Enduro are "Outdoor Recreation" devices, whereas the Forerunners are in the "Running/Multisport" section.

 Indoor pace and distance don’t work at all after 14.13. Called Garmin twice, did a factory reset, tried a recalibration in freezing temperatures. Garmin claims total ignorance about this. Also had my batter drop from 80% to 4% with no SpO2 on or anything to cause it. I’m frustrated. 

If Garmin doesn't do anything about their software development policy, the next watch will be any watch that supports multiband GPS, because currently Garmins don't have anything of value. No feature can be relied upon, it's all just randomly generated data. I am very disappointed with such a large company that has large capital and large capabilities. Instead of doing quality, they do quantity.

If you read this conversation and agree, please comment here so that it's get more attention. I'm done with this watch.