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Comment by thewebguyd | Hacker News Reader

> so it will be very interesting to see if they narrow the gap with Apple around software.

they might be able to narrow the gap with Apple wrt software, but I don't think (at least in the US) Garmin will ever gain marketshare vs. the Apple Watch, especially now with the Ultra for the simple reason that Garmin just cannot offer an equivalent experience on iPhones because of Apple.

We desperately need antitrust intervention to force Apple to open up iOS to allow other smartwatches to take advantage of the same APIs that the Apple Watch does.

If that happens I think Apple will quickly find that they cannot compete on an even playing field.

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I thought this when I had an Apple Watch, but I’ve really not found much that I miss. I occasionally found it useful to action notifications, but dismiss is almost always all I want - and that works. Apple Maps doesn’t seem to care about being useful, but Google Maps does the right thing with notifications so I just use that instead. Music controls work, and they’re more reliable because it’s trying to be less magic. Siri is as useless on the watch as anywhere else. I think the watch worked as a camera control and I might have used that once.

I do agree that Apple should be forced to compete on a fair playing field, but I don’t think they do a good job of taking advantage of it with Apple Watch.

I hate this argument. Android exists. It’s 50% of the phones out there.

If Garmin’s products are so amazing why aren’t they killing it with Android users?

From other people in these comments sounds like their own software quality is holding the back.

If not being on the iPhone was truly the main problem, they’d be doing way better.

Garmin is killing it across the market, their revenue growing YoY despite commanding price premium that goes to 2-3x the price of apple watches.

Right, but that still means Garmin (and others) are effectively locked out of 50% of the market.

Apple watch still remains the best selling watch of all times, not just smart watch, but of all watches.

Yep they are. And I’m not trying to say that should be ok.

But if Garmin isn’t killing it today, opening the iPhone won’t let them kill it tomorrow.

I see lots of Apple Watches. I see some Google/Samsung watches. I don’t think I’ve seen a Garmin watch. So I don’t think it’s fair to claim Apple’s policy is the only thing holding them back from being a dominant player.

Better smartphone integration makes more business sense when you can target the entire market instead of just half of it.

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