That’s completely fair and I’d be inclined to agree if I were a runner. But that’s more akin to arguing whether you’d prefer a Garmin 530 or 830.
I had a look at DesFit’s running features of watchOS 9 this morning and it seems Apple has at the very least closed the gap quite a bit. If I were a runner, I reckon I’d be quite happy. At the very least, I’d take the Apple Watch into consideration.
That is another thing I don’t like about it. Apple encourages and stimulates the need to replace the old model with the new as soon as it comes out (they’re certainly not the only company that does this, but I feel they are one of the worst) which creates more waste than necessary. A short battery life, that requires many charging cycles in a year, further encourages this as the battery is starting to hold less of a charge sooner, and you “feel” the old one is getting worse when the new model comes around. Combined with making it hard or impossible to replace a battery yourself, and charging a premium to do it for you (not sure if the battery on AW is replaceable at all, but this is their take on phones, ipads and laptops).
The ‘Adventure ultra’ feels like the urban SUV of watches & they’ll sell plenty.
Personally can’t fathom having to charge a watch daily, especially on multi-day camping/bikepacking trips.
I do however like the idea that you can run with it and make calls. I never ran with my phone but do have a watch that can play music & make contactless payments in an emergency.
On the other hand, I feel like Apple is the only company that every single time they have a new product, also discuss the steps they take with each new generation, how to be more environmentally friendly.
Also, their products lasts exponentially longer than pretty much every other brand out there, electronics or not. So yes, they do release a lot of new stuff, they most of the time create a feeling of “I need to buy this”, but for the people that don’t upgrade Apple also produces stuff that just lasts forever.
Yes, I understand that some people want to change the battery of their device themselves, but if they are offering this service for cheap nowadays, its worth it just paying Apple to do it, and keep the warranty etc. Of course it hasn’t been like this until recently, but yeah.
That’s what I love about the cycling industry, they don’t do this. 
#moreaero, #lighter, #stiffer
I’ll agree with this, but the difference when it comes to Apple is how they want you to trade in your old stuff toward the new stuff. It’s a win-win. You get a few bucks back, they get to refurbish and sell again. You don’t see anyone else in the sports tech realm doing that.
Welcome to 2022 consumerism, new is better and old gets chunked into the oceans 
hyperbole of course, but in general not untrue
Great analogy. I can almost guarantee that the apple watch Ultra will be used mostly by people who dont even sports. It will be a status symbol similar to the Garmin Marquee.
Its 800 (plus tax). That is not cheap for a watch that will probably be nice an all for about 2 years.
Compare that to the Forerunner series. I paid 499 for my 935 back in 2017. Still works great. The reason I want to change it, its just because I can. But I am not in a rush. even tho the battery doesnt last as long as before, I can still do a full week before charging (mix of indoor and outdoor activities).
FWIW my wife’s Series 3 lasted over 4 years. Apart from the battery, the watch was still perfect. Apple devices are generally quite long-lasting. We have a MacBook Pro we bought in 2014 that still works like the day we bought it. My iPhone 7 lasted 5.5 years.
For the record… I am not an apple hater. Everyone in my house has apple products but me. I work on a MacBook pro 14.
The apple watch is just not for me… But I get it might be for a lot of people.
To echo this, my partner has a Series 2 watch which has been flawless since it was first released. Will finally upgrade to the new one this year.
The Watches are really good. I’ve been very satisfied with them over the years.
I’m still rocking a Series 4 that I bought almost 4 years ago. Battery still perfectly fine. Hate wearing watches or jewelry to bed, and I’ll put it on around 4am or 5am to get some resting heart rate data. Its a smart watch first, and I only use it to record walks, core/strength training, and bike trips to the grocery store and farmers market.
Getting tired of the industrial design, and more interested in replacing with the Garmin 955 than the Ultra. Only because of the Garmin/Firstbeat HR and HRV stuff that has worked so well for me while cycling with the Edge 530.
I totally disagree. Apple comes out with new stuff. Do you feel encouraged to buy it just because it came out? Just because they make an announcement? Car companies come out with a new model every year. Do you feel encouraged to buy a new car every year?
Sure, the fanboys line up at the Apple store to be first to get the latest product but that is a tiny sliver of the customer base. And they get 90% of the press coverage.
To me computers, phones, watches are tools. I only replace them when they need replacing. I just bought a new 14" MBP because my 2013 MBP was starting to feel a bit slow for some of the things I’m working on. My first Apple Watch was a Series 1 given to me by a friend. I just upgraded to an SE last year. Do I feel the desire to upgrade to a 7, 8 or Pro Watch? No, not at all. I bought my iphone 11 pro used last year for $450 because I wanted the three cameras and I was too cheap to pay $1100 for a phone. Do I feel like a 12, 13, or 14 pro will buy me much more capability? No, not at all.
If you want/desire new tech gadgets every time a new one comes out, then you have to realize that it’s all in your mind.
Apples to oranges…
Cars cost 30x more than an apple watch.
Unless money is no issue, changing cars yearly is not an option for many. Some people do tho…they take leases for this reason.
I got the 955 and love it. I previously had a Apple Watch series 4.
I think the analogy still fits regardless of price. The mere existence of a new model Apple Watch doesn’t mean that you need a new one in the same way that you don’t need a 2023 automobile just because it’s the new model. If one isn’t immune to product announcements and they always crave the new stuff, they should think about why that is.
If you have experience with other Apple gear, then this claim seems quite weird: their stuff is high quality and Apple provides software updates for >= 4 years. Why question whether an Apple Watch will still be good after 2 years?
Yeah, but I think you overestimate the number of people who are upgrading their gear every year or every two years. Sure, these people exist, but literally >= 1 billion people use Apple devices. Most of them do not update their gear frequently, because most people don’t have that kind of money to spend.
Even if some people choose to update their gear yearly, if this is their hobby/form of affordable luxury, who cares? They are not upgrading because of a need, just because they want to.
My wife still has her iPhone 8 Plus and really has no plans to update. I’m on iPhone 12 and will wait for another version or two to update. I have friends who are still happy with their Apple Watch 3. I’m using the 6 with no plans to update soon. My MacBook lasted 7 years before slowing down a bit but only for software dev stuff I do. Regular use it was solid. Apple stuff is normally pretty solid and they do a good job of supporting older models with their newer operating systems
I can confirm, my Series 3 is still chugging along. No problems with the battery yet. I also have SE as they’re very affordable and I was wanting a watch that worked with the newer watch faces.
I’m buying an Ultra because it’s the first watch since my Series 3 LTE that has a new feature that’s interesting to me.
My guess is that I’ll have the Ultra for a minimum of four years as these things really don’t need to be replaced every year.
In fact, the same thing goes for the iPhones and Macs. I can get many many years out of them.
In fact, I think I’ve only owned three computers over the last two decades. I had a iMac G3, a 13" MacBook pro from 2008, and now I’m on a 27" 5k iMac from 2015. The current iMac is still chugging along perfectly and I still don’t see any reason to move on.
Same kind of goes for the phones there’s almost never any reason to actually upgrade them. I just keep an eye out for good trade-in deals that save money long-term and go for those. For instance, Verizon is offering $800 for trade-ins on the iPhone 14… that’s kind of a no brainer if you’re on an older iPhone. It almost reminds me of the subsidized days.
To be honest it’s been Garmin doing this more. I have the Edge 830, which is the Garmin’s current model and they are not updating the software with the improvements in the 1040. This really has made me mad with Garmin and I’ll have to buy a 840 (when released) if I want the new features. Apple is awesome at keeping their older devices up to date, so is Wahoo. It’s the same story with my Fenix 6 - out-of-date software now. It’s made me super-annoyed and I want to support a company that is going to update my hardware for several years.