955 after almost 2 years finally mature

It would seem to be the Garmin business model.   If Garmin regularly adds features after release they can keep the selling price higher for longer.  Or in other words the updates slow the depreciation.  This is presumably good for resale values also.

It would be interesting to know how much of the content of the new functionality in the updates is planned at the outset vs how much is based on ongoing customer feedback, and competitor activity.

But by “mature” is OP talking about just features, or also bugs?

Feels like every mid to high end Garmin device has had bugs on release, since 2017 or even earlier. And we all put up with it.

PubBike said:

 If Garmin regularly adds features after release they can keep the selling price higher for longer.  Or in other words the updates slow the depreciation.  This is presumably good for resale values also.

Wouldn’t Garmin want to discourage resales and encourage users to buy a new device as often as possible? I’m sure they’re not interested in the kind of customer who’s still running with a Forerunner 235. Is it really in their best interest to still be updating 945 LTE when there have been two successive generations, considering that Garmin does heavy segmentation by software features? I know 945 LTE is a special case as an “in between” generation. But 255 and 955 are still getting regular updates. I’m happy about that, but I’d be curious to know why they don’t just expect customers to buy a 265 or 965.

I thought "mature" was a category.

955 from my pov is not "mature" yet.

There are some huge flaw like showing a totally wrong ETA on a hike activity with gpx track navigation enabled, just to name one.

7419217 said:

I thought "mature" was a category.

Sorry lemme clarify --  I worded that really badly. PubBike seems to be implying that mature simply means "feature-complete". But I think that maturity also means "lack of bugs", and it seems like we agree on that.

So from my POV, no, Garmin devices are not "mature" (free of bugs) on release, and not 18 months after release either.

This kind of business modell is called AGILE. It is common in IT business and software development.
This means to launch unfinished products and it allows to the company to release their products earlier and then they finish the software development later after years of the product launch. This method allows a longer support period and of course it it works well to optimize sales. This means also you feel yourselt like a beta tester all the time. It works well because lot of users are so curious about new features and new developments that they accept the bugs also very easy.
At the end of the day not only the companies but the customers are olso responsible to eventuate this kind of business model and Garmin is only one of the companies... 

Really? My watch just rebooted today during an activity. First time tough. Never happened with older firmware.

Count me as unsatisfied - it still presents imprecise, and therefore unsuable, running pace on the workout display.  I no longer have any expectation that this will ever be fixed.