Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
One of those that I'm interested to see how they adapt (if they do) are the Personal Navigation Device (PND) companies like Garmin and others. Every year, the smartphones take pretty substantial bites out of their market space. In Garmin's case, where they are focused on things like Health and Fitness markets, smartphones with network appliances like sensors and things like the RFLKT+ are taking serious bites out of their sports specific GPS devices. Then with the advent of things like the Apple Watch, their running and fitness products are under assault as well. The only way out of it is innovation, and I just don't know what that will be but hopefully they do since I like Garmin as a company.
The Apple Watch isn't seen as a competitor to Garmin's fitness products, for several reasons.
Even "Cult of Mac" wrote an article about how Garmin's watch is better than Apple's, for running etc.
There's some truth to your comparison of the Edge units to smart phones, but (1) you overstate your case a bit, and (2) Edge bike computers aren't Garmin's most innovative sports products.
But they still have advantages over smart phones, like: battery life, ruggedness, weather-proof-ness, and ability to use maps and routing without network access. Also the phone's price advantage is less compelling when you think about buying custom mounts, reflector kits, waterproof bags, and batteries, let alone replacement costs should you crash. Plus Firstbeat data. It's less of a slam dunk than you make it sound like.
Their new watch tells you how a workout affected your fitness, how long you need to rest and your current recovery status, has graphs for elevation, heart rate, power, displays text messages and emails, and the battery can last weeks. I think they're listening to your advice to innovate just fine. Suunto and Polar GPS watches even do heart rate while you're swimming!