Will the Apple Watch Ultra make Garmin the next Nokia?

Image: Apple

The Apple Watch Ultra announcement made me feel like I had seen it before. It wasn't until fans on the internet began to poke fun at Apple that it hit me... this is all over again.

I am a long time fan of Garmin watches. My friends and family have all bought Apple Watches. I want a great outdoor adventure and fitness watch to pair with my phone. Even though their software interface is clumsy, I have been wearing big hulking Garmin watches like the Epix series. I use them to track and measure my performance in a variety of activities that include kitesurfing, trail running, golfing, and mountain biking.

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, it was met with mockery by the people who use it. The N95 was better than the iPhone on spec sheets, but not in terms of ease of use. As each company lost market share and revenue, Apple was able to catch up by adding new features year after year. The situation was only made worse by the maturing of theAndroid OS. The phone division was sold to Microsoft.

It was this scenario that I was thinking about as the Apple Watch Ultra was unveiled with a price well below the $1,000 mark many expected, and just a month after the announcement of the much improved Wear OS 3 by the company. It is ironic that Wear OS is a descendant of the Maemo and MeeGo OSes.

Apple dominates the market for cheaper devices. Premium outdoor watches from $699 to over $1,500 are the ones that dominate the segment above that. It ranks third in revenue and fifth in device shipments because of its higher average selling price. The difference between that and the iPhone is that the premium end of the market is dominated by the Apple product. Apple wants a bigger slice of the premium watch market with its more lucrative profit margins.

The Watch Edition series tried to use precious materials to inflate the price, which was terrible. It is trying to sell more valuable features to a new group of athletes. Apple has a lot of room to roll out new Ultra editions that are different in features and capabilities because of the price of the first generation. I would be willing to pay more just to have Apple's new emergency SOS satellite messaging on my wrist in addition to cellular data so that I can leave my phone behind when I run or kite off the coast of the Western Sahara. There is a wide range of watches at every price point that sometimes differ only slightly.

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

The Apple Watch Ultra isn't up to par with similar priced devices sold by other companies. The batteries are weak in a category where they are measured in weeks. Out of the box, it doesn't have things like built-in topographical maps needed for trails, or support forBluetooth power meters. The depth and variety offered by the competitors pales in comparison to Apple.

Apple has an excellent app system to offset some of the inequalities, and it already makes the best watch for people interested in health and fitness. Now it brings those same features, plus better mics, louder speaker, and a siren, to serious outdoor athletes, some of whom will undoubtedly be swayed by the Ultra's appeal as a seemingly good-enough multisport watch. We will have to wait for the reviews to find out if it is worth the wait.

I can say that the biggest weakness of the company is the way they design their products. It's high-end watches have a lot of features and capabilities that are obscured by complicated software that feels like operating a scientific calculator. Apple does a good job at user interface, but it isn't as good as Garmin, which did a poor job adapting to the phones. With enough time, Apple's watches will catch up to the features and specifications of the flagship watches.

In the short term, Apple's attention to the rugged outdoor space could be a benefit to the company. If we were taught anything, it was this: if Apple enters your house, you better fight like hell or you will be out of a job. Let's see how the company responds.