• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

AppleToolBox

Tools and Fixes for Mac, iPad, iPhone & iWatch

Search posts

  • About
  • Contact

CONNECT WITH US

CATEGORIES

  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • iPod
  • Apple Watch
  • Mac/MacBook
  • AirPods
  • Apple TV
  • News
  • Apple Services
  • HomePod
  • Reviews

SITE

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Advertise

Search posts

You are here: Home / Apple Watch / Lessons for Apple Watch from Garmin’s Successful Turnaround

Lessons for Apple Watch from Garmin’s Successful Turnaround

By SK 0 comments Last updated August 3, 2017

Apple Watch has been steadily showing that it has room to stay and grow unlike many other wearables out there. Tim Cook surprised a lot of analysts during this week’s earnings when Apple reported that its quarterly watch sales were up by 50%. Although a lot of speculation has been building around Apple Watch Series 3 features including its connectivity features, I think there is another area where Apple could double up its efforts.

With the release of Apple Watch Series 2, Apple introduced two new swimming workouts: Pool Swim and Open water Swim. This has been a massive success with the community of swimmers who like the Apple Watch to monitor their workouts.

RELATED: Apple Watch Series 3, What Can We Expect this Fall?

It’s time to move into integrating other outdoor focused activities on the Apple Watch.

Wearable Rival Garmin reported strong quarterly results this week. The impressive results were a function of the high demand for the company’s Fenix 5 watch that helped its Outdoor business segment grow 46% relative to last year. These Garmin F5 Watch units are not cheap. They cost anywhere between $599 and $660 depending upon the options and they are attracting a new fan base for the company.

Not quite the 50% growth rate as reported by Apple but it is still impressive for Garmin.

For every dollar of sales that Garmin made in its outdoor segment, it was able to make an operating profit of 38 cents. That’s more in line of what Apple’s margins are.

Why is the Fenix 5 so popular?

Garmin Fenix 5

Beyond their running functions (which many runners absolutely love), the new fenix 5 watches offer special feature sets to help with a whole variety of outdoor exercise. These include cycling, swim training, skiing, golfing and paddle sports, including stand-up paddle boarding and rowing.

The preloaded cycling profiles have support for both indoor biking as well as Mountain biking.

The Ski/Board mode puts speed, distance, vertical drop and an automatic run counter (with Auto Pause for the lift line) and more at your fingertips.

The feature set for paddle sports includes stroke count, stroke rate and even distance per stroke.

The Fenix 5 also has a Golf mode, which gives you yardage to the front, back, and middle of the green for any single course you’ve downloaded along with some very fancy stat tracking features.

The multisport Garmin watch is compatible with Apple iPhone as well as other Android devices.

In terms of Battery power, the Finex 5 has a rechargeable lithium ion battery that provides up to 9 days of battery life on the smart mode and about 14 hours on the GPS/HR mode. It appears that the heart rate monitoring consumes a lot of battery.

Apple Watch already has most of the sensors that are there in the Garmin F5.If Apple could figure out ways to integrate more outdoor related activities into its Watch platform, it could be a potential game changer for the product.

There are rumors that Apple may already be planning on tackling the ski-activity monitoring when it releases its new watchOS/Apple Watch. Jeffrey GrossMan, an Apple developer found some interesting lines of code in the new Homepod IPSW that point in this direction. There appears to be a skiiingWorkoutEvent Collector function.

Apple Watch and Garmin F5

This will definitely be a step in the right direction for the Apple Watch to reach more sports enthusiasts.

If Apple can tackle battery life issues, connectivity issues and offer more outdoor activity monitoring features, you can bet that Apple Series 3 if released in the fall will be a Christmas Special.

sudz - apple
SK

Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the original editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.

In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.

Related Posts:

  • The Best Apps and Games Of 2022, According to Apple
    The Best Apps and Games Of 2022, According to Apple
  • How Waterproof Is the Apple Watch?
    How Waterproof Is the Apple Watch?
  • Why Apple Car Rumors Are Making A Comeback
    Why Apple Car Rumors Are Making A Comeback
  • Best iPhone Lock Screen Widgets for iOS 16
    Best iPhone Lock Screen Widgets for iOS 16
  • Apple Card Review: Let's Compare It To The Competition
    Apple Card Review: Let's Compare It To The Competition
  • Getting a message to Update Apple ID Settings on iPhone, iPad, or Mac?
    Getting a message to Update Apple ID Settings on iPhone,…
  • How to subscribe and use Apple News+
    How to subscribe and use Apple News+
  • Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie Not Working, How-To Fix
    Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie Not Working, How-To Fix
  • Best Smartwatches for iPhone
    Best Smartwatches for iPhone

Reader Interactions

Write a Comment Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • macOS: How to Use SSH (with certificate)
  • Is Voice Memo Worth Using to Record Podcasts on Your iPhone?
  • How to Set up Hot Corners on iPad
  • Best Music Apps for Mac
  • How to Use Microsoft To Do on Your Mac
  • How to Use Temperature Sensor in HomePod Mini

Connect with us

Footer

ABOUT

  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use

GUIDES

  • iOS 13 & iPadOS
  • Apple ID
  • iCloud
  • App Store
  • iTunes
  • FaceTime
  • iMessage
  • Siri
  • Books and iBooks
  • Game Center
  • AirPlay

CONNECT

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • FeedBurner
  • YouTube

© Copyright 2010-2023 Guiding Tech Media · All Rights Reserved

This site and its content are in no way affiliated or endorsed by Apple, Inc. · Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited