Ambit2 - spell it out for me...

amiteo

I have seen so many Ambit/MC ones. I do understand the irritation people have who own these watches, but I feel as though some perspective is lost.

The first important fact seem to be everything will work as it has done for the next year+. Yes there is a question of what happens then: we will have to wait and see for now.

I do think it will be unreasonable if you get to that point in time and functionality is significantly reduced for the Ambit 2/3. Whilst I think it is completely reasonable for a manufacturer to stop developing old watches, it is something else to remove functionality. I will stop and reiterate that we don’t know that this is going to happen at that point, it is clearly a concern. Therefore, I feel that Ambit 3 users do need to hold tight as they can connect to the Suunto App and we just don’t know what this will do.

I think the Ambit 2 user issue is more urgent as they cannot connect Suunto App and there is no obvious path for the data connection side at the moment.

I personally think Suunto should either create some kind of PC based open source MC alternative; let the community support it as they see fit and then turn their back on the Ambits; or they create an ANT+ connection to the Suunto App (even if a dongle is required for the phone), and let Ambit 2 at least be in the same position as Ambit 3 users.

Prenj

@Brad_Olwin
It’s totally irrelevant how long ago watch stopped being sold by suunto as long as it’s not broken. Ambit2 and even older models are still used by many hikers and I know many outdoor enthusiasts that are perfectly satisfied with what they have now. It’s funny how these “old” devices still offer some functionalities not present in brand new devices.

I don’t have a problem with suunto not continuing to support the old models. There is no need for watch software update, no need for new features, but it’s very unfair and possibly illegal to practically disable the watches you sold. If suunto doesn’t want to maintain old platform for managing watch settings, they can and should make offline software for their users and go on to develop their newer products. They could even make protocols open source and let someone else develop the offline software (open ambit?).

So the lack of time or resources is really not the reason suunto is doing this. It’s probably just the new management that thinks the great quality and longevity of their products is actually a problem for the company as they cannot keep up with product life cycle of other manufacturers and therefore sell less watches.

Nico B

I’m sure Suunto will hear us… and my great ambit 2 will work again in 2021

Brad_Olwin

@Emir-Karisik As I stated before, how do you know exactly what is going to happen? Do you have inside information? I don’t. Perhaps saying that the watch is going to be disabled is premature. You could wait some time and see what happens. Certainly voicing your concerns constructively is helpful.

Prenj

@Brad_Olwin
I don’t think there is more than one way to understand this:
A) ambit2 is managed through movescount and there is no other way to set most of the watch functions
B) Suunto decides to shutdown Movescount and decides to move on with just new mobile app
C) Suunto clearly states ambit2 will not be supported by new app

If Suunto wanted to leave any option for ambit2 and other “old” watches open they would have said so. They wouldn’t just declare incompatibility with the only app they are going to pursue in the future. Therefore it’s a pure fiction that there is even a chance that these old watches are not going to effectively become paper weights. Their statement was pretty clear.

I really love suunto products, as well as the other Amer sport brands, but this is something that is just not excusable. If it had been just a bad wording, they had more than enough time to fix it.

ANT-FRA

I also have an Ambit 2 and today no solution is announced for solving (4).
I have a watch wich works perfectly, I’m using Movescount with pleasure, I really hope that a solution will be found for our old watches.

I really don’ t like this world where firms force you to buy new stuff when old stuff works perfectly… Really desappointed by Suunto.

Excuse me for my English… I’m french (sorry, nobody’s perfect)

@Brad_Olwin said in Ambit2 - spell it out for me...:

how do you know exactly what is going to happen? … Perhaps saying that the watch is going to be disabled is premature

… because he can read what Suunto announced on Jan.15?
It’s clear stated that Ambit, Ambit2 are not compatible and
no that’s not inside information it’s written black on white…

Brad_Olwin

@Tobias-F said in Ambit2 - spell it out for me...:

@Brad_Olwin said in Ambit2 - spell it out for me...:

how do you know exactly what is going to happen? … Perhaps saying that the watch is going to be disabled is premature

… because he can read what Suunto announced on Jan.15?
It’s clear stated that Ambit, Ambit2 are not compatible and
no that’s not inside information it’s written black on white…

Again, the black and white states these watches will not be compatible with SA. And that MC will shut down with an approximate time frame. It does not state they will become bricks. They may but we don’t know. Suunto I believe knows exactly how many legacy devices are in use. Whether they plan to implement something or not we simply don’t know. So saying these devices will not work is speculation.

sartoric

@Brad_Olwin
DFTT …

ajmorcal

@Emir-Karisik
Well said. The concern that the Ambit 1 /2 watches will no longer have the same level of functionality after 2020 is legitimate and is based on the information we have at hand. Speculation is assuming that Suunto will provide a work around when no work around has been offered.

Matias Lindner

@ajmorcal I would like to quote your concern. I am deeply hoping that Suunto will provide a suitable solution for 100% functionality of Ambit 1/2 series after summer 2020. All of the members of this forum should invite their friends to share these concerns, in order to increase the chances that Suunto will be provide a solution. A critical mass of people has more impact and I suppose that Suunto won’t be happy if many of its customers will have to change the watches since I will definitively go with a competitor if this will be the case.

awinkel

It’s very bad there is still no respons from Suunto after there first announcement and the amount of criticism they got.
It’s clear they don’t care about their customers.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@awinkel I dont think they dont care about the customers, most probably they are planning for solutions and communicating those to you.

witchcraft

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I hope you are correct, it does seem disturbingly quiet.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Ambit2 - spell it out for me...:

@awinkel I dont think they dont care about the customers, most probably they are planning for solutions and communicating those to you.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos your position may be very difficult, but I guess Suunto needs to understand that “selling” is also an impulsive thing, and after a “bomb” like this, lots of users will switch to other brands. Guess they need to have a lot of confidence on their product to think that a costumer will go from suunto, to garmin (or polar, or other brand) to suunto again.
I am still hopping for a positive answer

keb_64

I’m also surprised by this silence in the sports media…
This decision has been rarely pointed out.
There was only few articles when they announced it.
Now, it’s been just a long silence…But this is a crazy planned obsolescence!
As it has been mentioned above, suunto seems over confident that people will simply buy their new toy released annually…

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

To be honest here, I do hope Suunto will be supporting MC only for the A1-A3 watches and prev devices. Perhaps that should work.

pgrey

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Ambit2 - spell it out for me...:

To be honest here, I do hope Suunto will be supporting MC only for the A1-A3 watches and prev devices. Perhaps that should work.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos
To me, that seems like the most insular/abstracted solution, for Suunto devices that were (clearly) never designed to operate (fully or otherwise) in the SA implementation.
This allows current Ambit (and some others) to continue to sync, on a known-good platform, until the watches “actually age out”, make changes to custom sports modes, etc. Freezing the app store, sometime soon, would also make this more-or-less a known/predictable quantity, too (without the need to totally nuke all the existing apps).

This allows for a path forward, beyond AmbitX (and a few others), given that you can sync your data into the sports-tracker service, say if you decide you want to stay in the Suunto ecosystem, after the demise of an older watch, or otherwise.
It would seem like the simplest way to not alienate current customers, and to preserve the chance that they remain Suunto customers, for the most part.

The main downside, for Suunto, is the ongoing deployed server-side components; it’s hard to say what the overhead is here (but I’m quite certain Suunto knows, even amortized out for several years).
There are probably also some (likely lesser) support costs and such, as the “aging out” process continues.
Both of these should decline steadily, as the last Ambit devices are sold, and devices start to “fall off”, for various reasons.

Unless the overhead is significant (this could be true, depending on the actual design here), I fail to see why Suunto wouldn’t take this option, soon, and squelch all the “bad press” they’re getting, and will likely continue to get, as the 2020 date approaches.

freeheeler

@pgrey
that’s true. What I’m missing most is a clear communication from Suunto about their plans for Movescount desktop, Movescount app and hence the Ambit apps and support.
Normally you expect a 10 years product support by the day the last item has been sold (at least in Europe…). I only bought a used new condition Ambit3 Peak Sapphire recently and noticed that this watch is still being sold in stores… why would Suunto kill the service of their products that are still in shops?
I’ve had the new Suunto App installed and would have left it installed, but noticed that this is a different platform and has nothing to do with Movescount.
So I switched back to the Movescount Android app, hoping that eventually both Movescount desktop and app will be continued as we know and love it.
I don’t mind adapting to something else in the future… but the watch settings amd service must not take steps backwards…
I came from Garmin because of (and only) for the good analytics in Movescount and the option for ambit apps where I can read the ascent rate in meters per hour and some other useful customization.
If Suunto really does not care about their customers I will find another product.
But of course, I’d like to stick to the fantastic Ambit3 Peak and Movescount with all it’s good readings and settings.

Suunto, please listen and don’t risk loosing Ambit lovers to other competitors.

Cheers

Yann Pache

Sunnto strategy needs to be clarified.
They are keeping customers in a total doubt since 4 months and it seems that they treat their dealers the same way as we can still find Ambit 2 and 3 for sale in some shops at the moment !!!
Really bad signals from sunnto but fortunately they are not the only one in this businness and custommers will be happy to experience new brands.
Please add me to the list of disappointed and angry customers who are using Ambit2.