I had a humorous feeling watching yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Watch Ultra: I’ve seen this present earlier than. It wasn’t till Garmin watch followers on Reddit and Twitter began lampooning Apple that it hit me… that is Nokia once more.

Let’s get this out of the best way first: I’m a longtime Garmin watch fan. Most of my family and friends have all bought svelte Apple Watches. It’s an amazing smartwatch however I wished an amazing out of doors journey and health watch to pair with my iPhone as an alternative. That’s why I’ve been sporting large hulking Garmin watches just like the Fenix and Epix collection regardless of their clumsy software program interfaces. I’ve used them to obsessively monitor and measure my efficiency in quite a lot of actions that embrace kitesurfing, path working, {golfing}, weight coaching, and mountain biking.

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, it was met with derision by Nokia and its followers nonetheless clinging to their overwrought Symbian OS, tiny keyboards, and resistive touchscreens fabricated from plastic. Nokia units just like the N95 had been superior to the iPhone on spec sheets, however not when it comes to usability. Apple’s slow-roll strategy to including new options yr after yr ultimately allowed the corporate to catch as much as flagship specs provided by Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola, and Palm as every firm hemorrhaged market share and income. The state of affairs solely accelerated with the maturation of Google’s Android OS which overtook Symbian by 2011. Nokia’s cellphone division was bought to Microsoft in 2014 after which unloaded for elements in 2016.

It was this situation I used to be eager about because the Apple Watch Ultra was unveiled with a value effectively beneath the $1,000 mark many anticipated, and only a month after Samsung introduced the $449.99 Galaxy Watch 5 Pro working Google’s a lot improved Wear OS 3. (Ironically, Wear OS is infused with Tizen DNA which developed from Nokia’s personal Maemo and MeeGo OSes.)

Apple already dominates the smartwatch marketplace for units that value lower than $500. Garmin dominates the section above that with premium out of doors watches priced from $699 to over $1,500. Its increased common promoting value is the explanation it ranks third in terms of revenue regardless of rating fifth when it comes to system shipments, based on Counterpoint Research. That’s the other of the iPhone which dominates the premium finish of the smartphone market. Apple is clearly hungry for a much bigger slice of the premium smartwatch pie with its extra profitable revenue margins.

Apple tried promoting costly watches earlier than with the terribly misguided Watch Edition collection that tried to make use of valuable supplies to inflate the value. This time it’s promoting extra precious options and performance to a brand new viewers of hardcore athletes. By pricing the primary era of the Ultra at $799, Apple has loads of ceiling to roll out new Ultra editions within the years forward that differ in options and capabilities. I’d readily pay extra simply to have Apple’s new emergency SOS satellite tv for pc messaging on my wrist along with mobile information in order that I can depart my cellphone (or Garmin InReach) behind when working distant trails or kitesurfing off the coast of the Western Sahara. Garmin, for instance, sells a dizzying array of watches at each potential value level that generally differ solely barely in capabilities.

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Without a doubt, the Apple Watch Ultra comes up brief on a spec comparability with equally priced units bought by Garmin, Coros, and others. The battery is essentially the most obtrusive instance: 36, and even 60 hours enabled by a future low-power replace, is weak in a class the place batteries are measured in weeks. Out of the field it additionally lacks issues like built-in topographical maps wanted for trails, or assist for Bluetooth energy meters and cadence sensors utilized by cyclists. Apple’s sport options and analytics additionally pale compared to the depth and selection provided by the competitors.

But Apple has a superb app ecosystem by comparability to offset some inequalities, and it already makes one of the best smartwatch for iPhone homeowners considering informal health and well being. Now it brings those self same options — plus higher mics, louder speaker, and a siren — to critical out of doors athletes, a few of whom will undoubtedly be swayed by the Ultra’s enchantment as a seemingly good-enough multisport watch (with eSim for mobile information!) that’s additionally an amazing smartwatch with a silky-smooth interface. We’ll have to attend for the opinions to see how good (or dangerous) it truly is.

I can say this already although: Garmin’s largest weak spot is usability. Its high-end watches have tons of options and capabilities which are obscured by difficult software program that feels, at occasions, like working a scientific calculator. Apple excels at consumer interfaces, Garmin doesn’t, similar to Nokia which struggled in useless to adapt Symbian in response to the iPhone and Android. And given sufficient time, Apple’s watches will catch as much as the specs and options accessible on Garmin’s flagship watches.

In the brief time period, nonetheless, the added consideration Apple brings to the rugged out of doors smartwatch area may benefit Garmin — its inventory was up over three p.c yesterday. But if Nokia taught us something, it’s this: as soon as Apple chooses to enter your own home (and Google will get its home so as) you’d higher struggle like hell or put together to maneuver on. Let’s see how Garmin chooses to reply.