Sunday Runday
In his weekly column, our Wearables and Fitness Senior Editor Michael Hicks discusses the world of smartwatches, apps and fitness technology related to running and health, in his quest to get faster and fitter (and help you do the same).
As someone who reviews both smartwatches and specialized fitness watches, it’s nearly impossible to find one that excels in performance, user interface, health data, and fitness tracking all at once. Fitness wearables can’t compete with phone apps and connectivity, while smartwatches don’t offer proper exercise guidance and drain too quickly.
My time as Wearables Editor 2023 showed me one clear trend across all major brands on both sides of the industry: smartwatches want to become fitness trackers, fitness watches want to become smartwatches, and everyone is rushing to be the first to reach center… for better or for worse.
Google brutally struck the right balance this year by buying Fitbit and putting all its top sensors and fitness recommendations into the Pixel Watch 2. You get fast performance and all the apps a fitness watch could never support, but also recommendations on how hard to exercise that day based on your fitness level and fatigue.
The main problem is that you have to pay for Premium to get these insights, and the Fitbit brand has lost some of its luster over the past few years. That left the door wide open for competitors to take a shot.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is another watch that tries to strike that balance between smarts and fitness. It may be too expensive for everyday users, and its fitness software is not robust enough for professional athletes. But watchOS 9 and 10 clearly target runners, cyclists, hikers and divers, while Apple Fitness Plus has a home exercise block.
It’s fascinating to see how close Apple seems to be to a fitness breakthrough that will appeal to serious athletes, while simultaneously failing to combat its main weak point—the Series 9’s 18-hour battery—that will turn those same athletes off. I love seeing this fitness push, but at the same time I wonder if the company is wasting its time courting fitness fans.
Samsung, meanwhile, has finally started to catch up on fitness with the Galaxy Watch 6, adding custom heart rate zones for VO2 Max, fall detection and other fitness tools, while still leading the way in health sensor data with its body composition and blood pressure readings.
With the Galaxy Fit 3 and Galaxy Ring rumored to launch next year, it’s clear that Samsung has a serious interest in cashing in on the rich fitness tracking market. It has the brand recognition to succeed, but Samsung has a long way to go to make its fitness software stand out on its own.
As for other Wear OS watches, it’s clear that they’ve recognized that Google is doing its thing and therefore need to make their own fitness efforts. For example, with the 2023 Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5, you get 100 sports modes, VO2 Max data, and even recovery time recommendations based on how hard you’ve been exercising. Only specialist brands like Garmin and COROS usually tell you how long you should be resting, so seeing it on a traditional smartwatch was a welcome surprise.
When it comes to dedicated fitness watches, more and more watches are starting to offer AMOLED displays instead of the boring, battery-sapping MIPs we’ve seen over the years. Tiny fitness trackers have been using AMOLED for years, but fitness watches with built-in GPS can’t use them without sacrificing battery life; they now have the weeks of battery life we’d expect.
We also see borders of what a fitness watch can do for target users.
Check out the Garmin Venu 3. After years of a dull UI and limited health sensors, Garmin has met athletes halfway with its thin-bezel AMOLED, Bluetooth calling, UI toggle to make its “apps” as visible as its sports modes, ECG and skin temperature sensors to match competing brands and Sleep Coach. It easily took over the top spot for our favorite fitness-focused smartwatch.
At the same time, some of its new smart functions, like the QWERTY keyboard and notification images, only work for Android users. And it certainly can’t offer apps, just very specific third-party features like Strava Live Segments.
Garmin can continue to go that route, but it knows that half or more of its users use iPhones that block third-party brands from accessing certain smartwatch features, limiting the incentive to try it.
Then you have this year’s Fitbit Charge 6, which essentially keeps the same design and technology as the Charge 5, adding a bunch of Google apps. The brand has been losing market share in recent years, and its response has essentially been to throw Google Maps and YouTube Music at its customers instead of focusing on the fitness side of things.
What’s fascinating is that if you look at recent wearable sales reports from IDC or Counterpoint, you’ll find brands like Imagine Marketing (boAt), Noise, and Xiaomi taking the top spots selling $50 trackers that date back smarter by the day, but are still focused more on health and fitness. Fitbit is nowhere on that list.
Looking back on this year, I’m in a bit of a conflicted space, where I’m excited about all these fitness developments, but I also don’t know if it’s going to help anything.
I wanted Samsung, Apple and other major smartwatch brands to pay more attention to fitness, and in 2023 they did! But with so many different moving parts to prioritize, they may always be playing catch-up with “dumb” fitness watches that add new exercise tools in the meantime.
As for fitness, I’m glad to see them putting more effort into features that mainstream watches have had for years. However, I don’t think they’ll ever bridge the gap: Apple’s meddling aside, brands like Garmin will always focus on battery life and lightweight design over “smart”; even if some of their loyal customers would appreciate third-party apps, they value battery life and lightweight design more.
As Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told me, looking at sales figures for 2023, “fitness trackers are becoming more popular because some people just want to focus on the health aspect … instead of trying to add every imaginable feature into something like a smartwatch.”
So, will the fitness efforts of smartwatches or improvements to the IQ of fitness watches amount to anything, or will they just dilute what made them popular with their audience? Only time will tell, but I’m starting to suspect it might be the latter.