Garmin confirms strong new customer growth – bad news for competitors.
Garmin confirms strong new customer growth – bad news for competitors.
…all the categories were strong. I would say that advanced wearables…was the biggest driver. And we did call out running, specifically Forerunner 570 and 970, although running was not really the only driver, we saw strength across all of our products, including what we call our advanced wearables, which is our Venu and Vivoactive Line. So those were very, verystrong. In terms of repeat users versus new users, we’re seeing stronger growth in the new user category, so new people coming to Garmin Ltd. for the first time…[C. Pemble, CEO Garmin]
As Clifford notes, several of Garmin’s recent products contain advanced tech. External observers might wonder if the buyers of those watches are existing Garmin-lovers keen to upgrade or new to the Garmin stable for some other reason.
From the CEO’s comments, it seems that the high-end sports buyers (Forerunners 970, 570) and high-end tech sports buyers (Venu X1) include a perhaps unexpectedly unusual number of people coming to Garmin for the first time. Sure, they could be buying their first-ever sports watch, ditching a direct competitor watch, or upgrading from an unsuitable, cheap Chinese smart watch. Whichever way this particular cookie has crumbled, it’s good news for Garmin …less so for the competitors whose best hope is that the whole market is growing, and even if Garmin is increasing market share, their sales might still be rising.
Take Out
I’ll make the point again. The long-term success in these markets will be driven by market share. That means Apple, Samsung/Google and Garmin, at least for now. Increased market share pretty much comes from getting new customers, and Garmin is doing that.
Interestingly, this is happening at the premium end of Garmin’s product range. The Garmin products we are talking about here are generally relatively unique and good. Buyers who get a good experience are more likely to recommend Garmin to friends and family. Those are the BEST kind of influencers. That means even more customers.
You also have to wonder how many Apple Watch users are switching to Garmin. We have seen a decline in many recent quarters in Watch sales. Apple will certainly know what is going on, or at least have far better intel than you or I, thus hopefully setting us up for a bumper Autumn/fall of new wearable tech.
Garmin Acquires MyLaps – what this means for our watches and bike computers
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Noticed? Not a single word about connect+ subscriber number actually not a single word neither on the slides nor in the transcripts about anything named ‘connect+’. That says a lot about what for an actual trainwreck connect+ is.
Garmin management probably eager to detached themself from anything called connect+ alteady after two quarters passed.
Garmin that was your lacmus test, either your a a fancy and wallstreet darling ‘subscription based company’ or you are an old school hardware company who push boxes. Now everyone can see what type of company you really are.
If Garmin continues like this then in 2030 their entry level running watch will already cost a 4 digit sum. Not seeing this as bad for competitors!
Amazfit keeps improving. So do the android watches. And those offer a better integration with the phone. Something Garmin won’t ever do unless they change drastically. See your current 970 review and commenting about their watchs’ hardware.
With the AI craze I would suspect mass market to want the watch integration with the phone.
And if those are getting better at sports, I think Garmin will fall into a niche market. Which will hit them harder than the already smaller brands like Polar, Suunto and Coros.
Just a guess. We will see.
Garmin is using the old strategy of flooding the market with products in all price points. Paying retailers to have their watches on display and prominent to fool people into thinking either Garmin is the only watch out there or that they are the best choice. Similar strategy used in grocery stores with companies like Coke and Pepsi paying for more shelf space than their competitor.
Really sad that capitalism promotes this behavior. It eliminates competition and stifles innovation.
Garmin also seems to be the darling of reviews, which is questionable. Especially when a Garmin review drops the same day as the product, but other competitor watches drop a few days/weeks after launch on the same site.
One review site (not this site) used to complain about the prices of another watch company being $600 for their top model. Meanwhile the low end Fenix 8 is $800.
I just want my watch to be accurate in registering distance (which Garmin is not in my experience) and not have to pay a subscription to use the app for the watch.
i dont know if garmin pays for position. i wouldn’t have thought so but they might.
they certainly ‘flood’ the market, maybe the strategy is to get customers to the point of deciding which garmin they want? garmin wins either way and the customer still thinks they are making a choice.
capitalism – i think we are not in a truly capitalst economy anymore. i’d say we’ve gone post capitalist. its no longer about the freedom of the market to strive, succeed and fail but rather large corporates and large private wealth funds buy up all the assets and rig the legislative framework in their favour. – i’ve given that area quite a bit of thought. (well, spent way too long in various youtube rabbit holes – try Gary’s economics, tho it might be a bit too left leaning for those who live in echo chambers. i think he grasps the basics of what has dirven markets over the last 20 years and his view is not what you normally hear from the usual media economists)
darling of review: look, garmin products have MANY good features. I understand the review/influencer side of the market quite well. i can assure you that just about the only way to make real money is on covering garmin products, and the only reviews that sell product are positive reviews. go figure.
distance: the current gen of garmin’s synaptics chipsets are about as accurate as they will get. i would say they are now acceptably accurate in most circumstances. you can get more accuracy by using stryd.
“Especially when a Garmin review drops the same day as the product, but other competitor watches drop a few days/weeks after launch on the same site.”
As a general rule of thumb, most reviewers I know will work their ass off to get a review out the day a product launches. As a secondary rule of thumb, if they don’t, it’s because the company didn’t provide a loaner ahead of time.
Or secondarily, some of the non-Garmin companies will launch on one day, but not have units actually ready for a few more weeks. This puts reviewers in a pickle of either doing a review on a product that isn’t finished (and often substantially changes), or, splitting the difference somewhere on timelines. I guess you’re saying that reviewers should publish weeks before availability on non-final hardware/software?
Either way, I go out of my way to ensure that COROS/Suunto/Polar reviews all hit on launch day, assuming the firmware is done. And failing that, I don’t think I’ve missed a single launch day announcement of any of those three companies in recent years. Whereas I’m far behind on covering Garmin reviews, both good and bad ones. And the ones I have published this year have hardly been all roses.
As for GPS distance, any reviewer, 5K himself, will straight-up tell you that Garmin is the making the most accurate GPS sport devices on the market today, period. There’s no room for debate there. Like factually, there isn’t, and hasn’t been since the Fenix 7 came out. Collectively, all of our reviewer data sets show that time and time again. The next closest is Suunto (and they are very close on land, not so much on water).