Strava and Garmin go to war
Strava and Garmin have had a longstanding relationship: Garmin is the smartwatch of choice for many runners and cyclists, but Strava is the app that these consumers use to track – and share – their data. And by sharing the data, Strava has interesting features, such as heat maps, that show an individual where other people are running/cycling which can alleviate the boredom of the current run path, proposing alternatives.
But the heat map feature has suddenly become contentious, with Garmin adding the same feature directly into its own app. And that has led to Strava suing Garmin for infringing on its patents relating to heat maps and segments. There’s also an underlying issue that Garmin is insisting that third party apps showing Garmin data need to have a Garmin watermark, allowing Garmin to “brand” the data far beyond its own Garmin Connect app.
The Circana Take:
- This is a potential lawsuit that hurts both sides as it may force consumers to make a choice: stick with Strava and use a different smartwatch, or stick with Garmin (after all, that was the biggest cash investment and is the device that owners believe is the most accurate watch for measuring progress) and potentially dump Strava.
- There’s an opportunity for other smartwatch vendors to aggressively market to the Garmin base, highlighting Strava integration with their own hardware. While a lot of owner sentiment appears to be more pro-Garmin than pro-Strava right now, it is still a wedge between the two companies that should be exploited by the competition.
- In fairness, what Garmin is doing is a natural evolution of its own app. Whether heat maps and segments are unique to Strava in a court of law is something we will leave the courts to decide, Garmin has to be looking at ways to continually expand its influence within its customer base.
- Is there a potential acquisition here? Garmin could solve this issue by purchasing Strava. This would solve the immediate lawsuit issues, as well as bringing a valuable app directly into the Garmin ecosystem.
Tag Heuer and New Balance collaborate
Tag Heuer and New Balance have launched a limited edition smartwatch and matching running shoes. Tag is providing the Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E5 x New Balance smartwatch and New Balance the FuelCell SuperComp Elite v5 running shoe, both of which are focused on the runner community, not the mention both being quite a mouthful as device names go.
The partnership comes as part of the launch of Tag’s new fifth-gen smartwatch which is, in itself, a bold move by Tag as the watch no longer uses Wear OS; instead it uses Tag Heuer’s proprietary operating system which features dual-frequency GPS and a better battery life (estimate of 1.5 days). From a New Balance perspective, the collaboration also includes six exclusive New Balance running plans ranging from a “First 10k challenge” to “Marathon Mastery”.
The Circana Take:
- Tag Heuer’s share of the smartwatch market is small (less than 1 percent of the total ownership base) but the company has had success in key segments, such as with the golfing community. This latest collaboration is an attempt to replicate that success within the active runner market.
- The move has little likelihood of having a significant impact. The active runner market is the target audience for pretty much every single smartwatch, starting with Garmin and then through Apple and Samsung. There is nothing particularly unique about the collaboration of Tag and New Balance to help differentiate this offering.
- Nothing unique, that is, except for the watch itself. For affluent consumers who want to differentiate themselves from the herd of smartwatch wearers, a Tag Heuer watch certainly makes a greater statement.