If you purchase a cellphone, pill, or smartwatch immediately, you already know precisely what number of years of software program updates it’s going to obtain — equivalent to three years for the Pixel Watch 2 or 4 years for the Galaxy Watch 6. Nevertheless, purchase a Garmin, Fitbit, or some other fitness-branded watch, and it is a whole crapshoot to foretell how lengthy till it turns into an unchanging artifact, lapped by new tech designed to make it look out of date.
I believe it is time for that to alter.
Sunday Runday
In his weekly column, our Senior Editor of Wearables and Health Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to operating and well being, in his quest to get sooner and healthier.
When $100-or-less health trackers had been standard, you would anticipate no matter software program got here with it within the field, and never a lot else. And that is affordable, in the identical approach that an inexpensive Android cellphone will get one OS replace at most.
Now, corporations frequently promote $400+ health watches with sturdy coaching and mapping software program. However in contrast to comparably priced smartwatches, these watches have thriller CPUs and subsequent to no assure for a way lengthy they’re going to get correct help.
We all know that the Pixel Watch 2 makes use of the Snapdragon W5 chip with 2GB of RAM, and that each Google and Qualcomm are invested in making it carry out nicely for years. Select a health watch as a substitute, and also you’re unlikely to know what efficiency features it gives over earlier generations, even in case you take it aside and examine the proprietary parts.
With Garmin, as an example, I do know typically that Fenix or Epix watches have one of the best efficiency to allow the newest software program tips, whereas an Intuition watch sometimes has slower efficiency. However I do not know the magnitude of the distinction, which makes it arduous to guage how a lot to spend so my watch has the capability to be taught future tips.
Usually, designing a health watch or tracker is all about stability. It’s a must to make it compact sufficient to maintain it skinny, clocked low sufficient that the battery can final a few weeks, and someway sturdy sufficient to energy all the sensors and satellites inside.
When you strike that stability, you’ll be able to’t simply add new software program willy-nilly a 12 months later, not with out overloading the finely-tuned equilibrium between design and efficiency. And identical to that, your fancy, expensive wearable might get left behind — often with no alternative for a trade-in deal.
Garmin makes some extent of updating its previous watches a couple of months after new fashions launch. It dawdles lengthy sufficient to tantalize its prospects into upgrading; solely after the launch window ends will Garmin begrudgingly add new options to the older fashions, assuming they are not restricted by {hardware} limitations.
Simply take a look at final month’s huge Garmin function dump of instruments like Hill Scores, Coaching Readiness, Coaching Load Ratio, and Morning Report back to last-gen Forerunner, Fenix, Epix, and Intuition watches. Garmin is aware of full nicely that if it sells a brand new mannequin yearly after which does not help year-old watches, folks will cease trusting that the greatest Garmin watches will stay one of the best for very lengthy.
My principal difficulty is that it is by no means a assure that your watch will get a brand new function. The truth that Garmin can cost $3,000 for a carbon-fiber MARQ watch with out promising how lengthy the watch will obtain help is an issue!
I am assured Garmin will give it years of updates, nevertheless it ought to be a matter of document, not of belief within the model. And on condition that it is a redesign of the MARQ Gen 2 watch launched in 2022, that makes me surprise if the {hardware} inside is already barely dated in comparison with 2023 watches just like the Epix Professional Gen 2. I is likely to be incorrect, however I’ve no approach of realizing.
For one more instance, take a look at 2022’s Garmin Forerunner 255, a wonderful operating watch supplanted by the Forerunner 265 lower than a 12 months later. Except for the brand-new AMOLED display, the 265’s one improve was Coaching Readiness, which measures your physique’s readiness to work out primarily based on restoration information, coaching load, HRV, sleep, and stress information. The Forerunner 255 measures each single a kind of metrics individually, however Garmin nonetheless hasn’t given it the capability to transform that information into Coaching Readiness.
Is that this as a result of Garmin gave the 255 a lesser chip that may’t deal with the additional work of calculating it? We do not know as a result of Garmin does not promote efficiency features per technology. Or is it reserving the function to justify the 265’s $100 value bump? Once more, we do not know.
I need to give credit score to COROS, a operating watch model and Garmin rival that appears to deal with its updates higher. All of its EvoLab coaching suggestions are the identical throughout all watches, no matter value. COROS even gave all of its units a firmware replace proper earlier than the COROS PACE 3 launched, guaranteeing PACE 2 house owners had comparable software program and primarily had {hardware} causes to improve.
That is the one exception I do know of, nevertheless; in case you purchase an Amazfit watch or some other typical health watch, you would possibly get updates up till the following mannequin arrives, however hardly ever something moreover bug fixes after that.
I am curious if Fitbit would be the subsequent main model to buck this development and set an instance for dealing with software program updates. The early days of Google’s Fitbit acquisition had been a multitude, because the Sense 2 and Versa 4 had last-gen options walked again or disabled. However possibly the Cost 6 will start to reverse this development.
Google set a powerful new normal with the Pixel 8 and its seven years of OS updates. This solely applies to telephones, after all — Google’s approach of difficult the supremacy of long-lived iPhones.
What I need to see is Google take the same strategy to Fitbit OS that it does to Put on OS. To not make Fitbit’s software program a replica of Put on OS — you’ll be able to all the time get the Pixel Watch 2 for a stability between smarts and health — however merely to present Fitbit’s software program an everyday replace cadence, with annual or quarterly benchmarks for when to anticipate new options.
I simply started testing the Fitbit Cost 6 and genuinely prefer it to date (preserve a watch out for my evaluate coming quickly). However with out diving into the main points, it is truthful to say {that a} $160 health tracker that finally fees you for Fitbit Premium is an actual funding when you do not know how lengthy Google will correctly help it — particularly the Google apps. The corporate has a behavior of eradicating options from older units, in any case.
Now, think about if Google had been to vow that the Cost 6 would get the identical software program updates because the hypothetical Cost 7 in 2024 or 2025. Or that the Garmin Venu 3 will get all of the preliminary options of the Venu 4 in a 12 months or two?
Which will sound unreasonable, however we know {that a} $200 Apple Watch SE or $300 Galaxy Watch 6 will get new options from watches years from now that have not even been designed but. Why cannot we anticipate the identical software program dedication from health watches, particularly ones with comparable (or greater) value tags?
I’ve come to simply accept that health watches’ proprietary chargers are an unsolvable mess as a result of they cannot mandate that watches preserve the identical design from one technology to the following. However I do suppose it is truthful to anticipate extra from the unnamed price range CPUs positioned inside health watches to depart sufficient leeway for correct updates a 12 months or two down the road.