Latest news with #Pemble
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
More Future Garmin Watch Features Will Be Locked Behind The Connect+ Paywall
Garmin Instinct 3 watch In a recent earnings call, Garmin confirmed it plans to begin placing more features behind its Connect+ subscription paywall. As part of a Q+A section of Garmin's Q1 2025 earnings call, Garmin CEO Clifton Pemble hinted, unsurprisingly, more future features will only be accessible to Connect+ subscribers. 'We still have a strong commitment to develop Garmin Connect and our devices with broad features that are available to everyone. But certain ones we will likely reserve for our premium offerings,' Pemble said, while reaffirming the official line 'we're not taking any features away.' A recording of the call has been posted on YouTube. He also claimed Garmin Connect+ had received a 'positive' reception, which isn't the impression you might come away with following at look at online communities like Reddit. Users have accused Garmin of greed, others have intimated they may stop using the brand's watches in future as a result. Garmin Connect+ is not going anywhere, though, based on the company's wording. 'It's a long-term thing for us, a very important part of our fitness segment going forwards,' Pemble said during the earnings call. At present Garmin Connect+ is not a hugely substantive service. It provides AI-generated summaries of your progress, alongside a few additional features such as live tracking of your activities, so other people can follow along remotely. The big question is what could be planned for future integration into Connect+. Garmin has already debuted ECG readings as a standard feature in its watches, but it could potentially expand its coaching options into a paid service. One problem for Garmin is its free Garmin Coach and Suggested Workouts platforms are already excellent. You can effectively get marathon coaching without paying anything extra. There is scope for building it up into a more direct competitor to Runna, one of the hottest fitness platforms of the moment, though. While both can help get you fitter, a not-insignificant portion of the Runna user base likely already owns a Garmin watch. This expansion of training could involve more varied training, tied to a more appealing training interface and likely more prominent use of AI. Garmin Connect+ costs $6.99 a month, significantly less than the $19.99 a month Runna charges. Strava recently acquired Runna for an undisclosed sum, but claims there are no imminent plans to fold the platform into Strava's own.
Tom's Guide
08-05-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Bad news for Garmin users — future features could go behind the Connect+ paywall, according to CEO
When Garmin Connect+ launched earlier this year Garmin stressed that all the existing features available in its app would remain free to users. Given that the features you do get with Garmin Connect+ have thus far underwhelmed, it wasn't a great hardship to skip the subscription entirely. However, the fear Garmin users had was that future features would end up locked behind the Garmin Connect+ paywall, and that fear may have just been confirmed by Garmin's CEO. Speaking during Garmin's Q1 2025 earnings call CEO Cliff Pemble spoke about Connect+ and the features it might get in the future, saying, 'certain ones, we will likely reserve for premium offerings.". While Garmin Connect+ certainly does need some new features to make it worth the outlay, if it becomes a requirement to get the most from a watch then that's bad news for Garmin users who have already spent a lot of money on a watch. Pemble's also spoke about how Garmin Connect+ had been received by Garmin users, saying that the response 'had been positive', which is a surprise to me. Notwithstanding the fact that introducing a paid subscription rarely, if ever, goes down well, Garmin users seemed particularly outraged by the arrival of Connect+. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. This is partly down to the fact the best Garmin watches like the Garmin Fenix 8 cost more than $1,000, meaning the idea of paying an extra $6.99 a month to unlock features is galling. Even if you opt for a cheaper model like the Garmin Forerunner 165, part of the appeal of using a Garmin in the past has been that you don't have to pay more once you've bought the watch. Furthermore, Garmin Connect+ hasn't drawn very positive reviews from those who have used it. The AI-based Active Intelligence feature in particular is yet to provide any useful insights, in my experience. Once Garmin Connect+ was introduced it was inevitable that future features would end up behind its paywall, and if the service is to be a success it does need some more useful features than it currently has. Subscription services are only likely to become more common with the best sports watches, unfortunately. However so far Suunto and Coros haven't introduced one to use with their devices. The core experience of tracking and analyzing your training will remain free across the board I would expect, and it's still an excellent experience with Garmin. However, if we read the tea leaves, it's likely that when interesting new Garmin features launch in the future, some are likely to cost you.
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Garmin's $100 Million Tariff Impact Could Mean Higher Watch Prices For All
Garmin recently held a shareholder earnings call during which the company announced it expects Trump tariffs could impact the company to the tune of $100 million in 2025 alone. Garmin Forerunner 965 'Our guidance assumes a modest reduction of demand moving forward,' said Garmin CEO Clifton Pemble. 'Using these assumptions, we estimate the gross impact from tariffs on our 2025 results prior to any mitigations will be approximately $100 million of increased cost.' Garmin's stock value dropped by almost 10% in recent days, despite overall strong reporting in the company's Q1 2025 figures. While Garmin has not announced any clearly tariff-related price rises in recent weeks, Pemble does say more mitigations are planned. 'We are pursuing mitigations, some of which have already been established, while others will take more time. We are not ruling anything out and we intend to be strategic and selective with these actions,' Pemble said. One key juncture will be Garmin's next big watch release, which is expected to be the Forerunner 970, potentially heading for a reveal within weeks. Garmin's last notable release was the Instinct 3 Tactical, which sells for $549 in its Solar edition, $599 in the AMOLED variant. That's a $100 leap over the standard version, where in the last generation the Tactical model of the Instinct 2 came at a $50 premium. The Forerunner 970 will be a more important case study in how Garmin will deal with tariffs through consumer pricing going forward. Not only is that a fresh line, rather than a sub-set of an existing one, it's the successor to one of the most strongly recommended Garmin watches of recent years, the Forerunner 965. Garmin needs to get this one right. Garmin's watches are not primarily, as some might assume, assembled in China, but Taiwan. While higher-rate U.S. tariffs are currently on pause, Taiwan is due to revert to 32%. However, Garmin's current planning is based on Taiwan sticking at the current lower 10% level. 'It's important to note that approximately 25% of our revenue is generated in the U.S. market from products manufactured outside of the U.S., primarily in Taiwan,' said Pemble. 'Our assumptions include a 10% baseline tariff on all products manufactured outside of the U.S. including those manufactured in Taiwan.' Garmin's Q1 2025 financial reporting included a 20% increase in its Outdoor segment revenues, to $438 million, and a 12% increase in its Fitness category, to $385 million.
