Further 3% Slide in Garmin Outdoor Sales
The division that sells Fenix 7, Epix 2, Instinct 2 and handhelds is called OUTDOOR and this quarter has shown a continuing slide in sales (3%) which, when combined with the previous quarter’s dramatic 27% crash, gives a half-year decline of 15%.
Whilst OUTDOOR seems to be struggling, the FITNESS division posted a sweet 23% sales gain.
Overall the company’s bottom line showed a modest increase in profitability.
Caution: In Q1, Garmin split its automotive business into OEM and Consumer with the latter portion now included in OUTDOOR. It’s not possible to determine how the old Fitness division performed however other notes from the company state that sales of adventure watches (Fenix/Epix increased).
Detailed notes
Here are other statements (paraphrased) from the company that partially clarify where the growth and decline are likely coming from.
Fitness: Revenue from the fitness segment grew 23% in the second quarter, with growth across all categories led by strong demand for advanced wearables. Gross and operating margins were 52% and 16%, respectively… During the quarter, we launched the Edge 540 and Edge 840 cycling computers.
Outdoor: Revenue from the outdoor segment decreased 3% in the second quarter as growth in adventure watches was more than offset by declines in other categories. Gross and operating margins were 63% and 31%, respectively,
resulting in $138 million of operating income. During the quarter, we launched the Fenix 7 Pro Series, Epix (2) Pro Series, plus the Approach S70 golf watch.
Elsewhere Garmin state they have about $1.5bn of cash-like reserves. Yikes!
Take Out
Garmin seems to be bucking the recessionary elements in global markets.
My guess would be that consumer automotive is in terminal decline – who prefers an aftermarket Garmin Satnav to their smartphone?
Garmin’s price increases are perhaps not too well reflected in these results yet inflation-impacted costs could be – all the more impressive that the company increased profitability.
New Epix/Fenix/Approach watch sales only started in May and Edge 540/840 in April, Garmin will have included trade sales to retailers in these figures.
We now await the impact of the next tranche of products – perhaps Edge 1050 AMOLED, Edge 150 and Venu 3/3s
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I have been using Garmin outdoor products for over 15 years now. I love the watches. My new Forerunner 965 is the 4th watch I have owned and it us my go-to gadget. It does everything. My bike computer a 1030 plus is great when I am looking at numbers while riding, ditto side profiles of hills. What’s not so good are monochrome maps and following routes Now I have to admit my eyesight is not suited to following routes while riding on a 3.5” low res screen. But a lot of riders suffer from eyesight problems. I am following routes on my iPhone though. One solution is to increase the size of the screen dramatically and also the resolution. You also have to factor in the price sweet spot. I am not going to buy a bike computer costing more than £650. I’ll use my phone and my watch. Maybe bike computers could just be a hi-res panel and I could project my readouts from
My watch into it? Or alternatively, plug in different app modes via a memory card. I am not going to mention bike computers software that’s a whole lifetime of moaning. It’s clunky and non-intuitive whereas my Wstchs software is pretty good.
Q3/Q4 will be interesting because the new Apple Watches will be coming out. Apple is slowly but surely making the Apple Watch more compelling for the Garmin user base, yes the Ultra can’t compete with the Epix/Fenix yet but I believe at some point it will (maybe not on battery ever). It’s unfortunate because personally I could sacrifice the smartwatch limitations (especially when enforced by Apple, alleviated on Android) but I feel like even with the switch to AMOLED the whole UX of Garmin is still looking like 10+ years old. I understand that some of us like something “pro” and without “fancy animations” but I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the fact that basic UX is still nowhere near Apple/Samsung/Google. Just compare for example the Stryd UX on Garmin vs Apple. Compare the new TOPO maps on Apple vs Garmin vs 3rd Party on Apple Watch. It feels like 3rd party, or even Garmin is limited by the whole UX stack on their OS. This and the sounds as highlighted in an article.
Beside UX I’m still puzzled why Garmin still can’t figure LTE (I want to run without phone but I want to be reachable/can call in case of emergency), they still can’t figure how to put a mic and a speaker on a 1k+ watch that is 10ATM rated (like the Ultra) so I can invoke Google Assistant/Siri on one button. These are like stuff a watch 200+$ or more cheaper can do. Garmin is already at a huge disadvantage on smartwatch part and they don’t appear to focus on it (the Epix Pro refresh is an example).
Oh and after many years Garmin Pay is still not expanding, we still can’t add an AMEX.
A smart Watch is more expensive than smart phone? Lol!!!!
Smartphones are useless because Garmin Connect app doesn’t support activity tracking.
Vast majority of users don’t want to deal with 3rd party app (e.g., iSmoothRun). Nevertheless external HRM and carry 200 grams smartphones that bounces around in pockets during activities.
In retrospect, yes, people are paying premium for Garmin smartwatch. It’s a matter of convenience.