Important news concerning our digital services

What can I say? This escalated quickly

Poor @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos! I think the next few days you’ll put in your month’s worth of hours into this forum Hold in there! The real joy is coming when Suunto pulls the plug on Movescount. Though Adidas’ miCoach went out with more of a whisper than a bang. But then it never had much following to begin with.

@akamatos said in Important news concerning our digital services:

I really can’t believe that creating a web version for the Suunto app is under discussion and Suunto needs feedback in order to decide about it.

For all we know, Suunto might be working on a web based companion as we speak. Hell, they might be working on a progressive web app as some already mentioned here, that would work equally well on the desktop and phones. The Movescount isn’t shutting down tomorrow. Not even a year from now. Mid-2020 is a long, long way off, and where there’s 18 months, there can be 24, or even 36. Hell, they may leave it running for Ambit2 and older dive computer users and lock everyone else out for all we know.

Then there’s something to be said about building an open data gathering platform (your Suunto watch) that feeds data into other services or integrates analysis from them, be it Strava, Training Peaks, and what not. I understand people want to have a full featured set of free services attached to their device, but how many of you still rely on premium Strava, Training Peaks, Sports Tracks, and other subscriptions because what’s included in “free” is often inadequate? Perhaps, not trying to be everything for everyone and focusing on core competencies is a viable path forward too?

I’m wondering how many Ambit2 users are still out there? Will be there two years from now this Suunto move notwithstanding?

Somebody brought up the iPhone analogy. Yes, you can still use your older iPhone assuming you paid for a battery and most likely a screen replacement. Better still, why not compare Ambit2 situation with the original “Series 0” Apple Watch? Apples to apples, no pun intended! Tried running anything on it lately? Sometimes you don’t have to shutdown a service to effectively end a device… Just saying. Not for flaming.

Mike Green

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Whether the s/w is better or not is not the key question though. If the s/w only exists/runs on a physical platform which is ill-suited to the type of usage. Reviewing and planning routes is never going to be either ‘as good’ or ‘better’ on a phone screen as on a larger screen. Similarly, ‘serious’ analysis of post-activity data is far less satisfactory on a small screen than a large one. Whilst both those things may be possible on a small screen, they are not better and hence the s/w, taking into account where it runs as well as what it does, is also not better.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Mike-Green I hear you. Thanks!

didier_2_5

No more website provided by suunto in 2020 ?

I don’t think that app mobile can provide the same comfort of analyzing data from a web site…

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos … 'How do you know " … member search function via movescount web community page

halajos

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos is this feedback form https://www.getfeedback.com/r/Smx5YSkJ still open? Would be a good opportunity for Ambit3/Traverse users to give feedback now that the announcement about MC ramp down is made. I assume that not many had filled this back then…

Alex Nedovizii

@NickK look, my first car is becoming 8 years old this year. So Suunto’s decision is like if my car’s manufacturer says “we won’t change oil after 2019 and you have to stop opening and closing windows, as well as using lights” and there would be no service available. It still runs, you just may not open windows and use lights. But I can (even!) fill up the tank!

…will make me unlikely to buy another car from this manufacturer. Ehrr?

Nothing personal.

Saketo Nemo

“earliest in summer 2020”
in the meantime, believe in suunto

akamatos

@NickK said in Important news concerning our digital services:

@akamatos said in Important news concerning our digital services:

I really can’t believe that creating a web version for the Suunto app is under discussion and Suunto needs feedback in order to decide about it.

For all we know, Suunto might be working on a web based companion as we speak. Hell, they might be working on a progressive web app as some already mentioned here, that would work equally well on the desktop and phones. The Movescount isn’t shutting down tomorrow. Not even a year from now. Mid-2020 is a long, long way off, and where there’s 18 months, there can be 24, or even 36. Hell, they may leave it running for Ambit2 and older dive computer users and lock everyone else out for all we know.

“For all we know”, I made the above comment based on the recent official Suunto announcement and Dimitrios’ other comments, prompting users to give feedback requesting a new web platform, because the answer to whether we are going to have a replacement for Movescount was both “yes and no”, as he said. Those are facts. Not assumptions about what Suunto might be doing as we speak.

With that said, I have good faith that in the end Suunto are going to work it out somehow and have most of the people satisfied, but on the other hand I believe that this announcement, on a communicative level, was a bit failure. It just informed us that “Suunto app is the future”, which we already knew, that Movescount is shutting down (which many would have already imagined) and on the same time, it keeps us vague about the web integration of the devices, some of which (like the Ambit2s) are totally incapable of using the future of Suunto app. On this context, it sounds reasonable to me that this announcement has mainly caused panic rather than excitement about the future.

RigoS

Hmm … bought a Spartan in September, but I don’t have an Android or iOS device. Am I allowed to say that I am very unhappy ?

Spree

@NickK said in Important news concerning our digital services:

Then there’s something to be said about building an open data gathering platform (your Suunto watch) that feeds data into other services or integrates analysis from them, be it Strava, Training Peaks, and what not. I understand people want to have a full featured set of free services attached to their device, but how many of you still rely on premium Strava, Training Peaks, Sports Tracks, and other subscriptions because what’s included in “free” is often inadequate? Perhaps, not trying to be everything for everyone and focusing on core competencies is a viable path forward too?

Well, I think this nails it on the head. There is a reason why premium training data analysis companies have, well, premium plans and offer paying subscriptions. The number of people that want such advanced analysis is a subset of the total consumer base - granted, a vocal and influential subset, but a subset nonetheless. The group that wants that and has never used a third party service is a subset of that subset.

So while it’s great to have everything in one place, there are advantages in offering a simple data recording device + portability for data analysis.

@Alex-Nedovizii said in Important news concerning our digital services:

my first car is becoming 8 years old this year.

Beware of false analogy!

The situation isn’t like car and oil change, but more like Zune and its music service, or SmartRun and miCoach, or dozens of other similar examples. When you buy a connected device, do you truly anticipate the backing service to run forever? Because if we look at the digital landscape, there are far more example of services and devices shut down than something that existed for years and continues to exist.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Tobias-F but these are members. It’s just counting profiles not active users or what watch each ones has. Just saying

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@halajos said in Important news concerning our digital services:

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos is this feedback form https://www.getfeedback.com/r/Smx5YSkJ still open? Would be a good opportunity for Ambit3/Traverse users to give feedback now that the announcement about MC ramp down is made. I assume that not many had filled this back then…

Will be open in some time again

@NickK They are NOT working on a web replacement of MC. If they did, they would not announce that they will discontinue supporting ambit2 etc…

@NickK We are not expecting anything. Do you know of competitor companies and how/if they support their old devices?
Surprise! they do. Wrote that earlier about my Forerunner 210 (lauch date 2010).
It is a business decision and a bad one at that.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos yeap, saying ‘total user accounts’, in parsing ‘most active members’ (how suunto call it) you get around 860k in return so roughly 60% of total member account that seems realistic for such service, maybe you have more accurate numbers

Alex Nedovizii

@NickK I disagree on false analogy. The keyword is “attractiveness” to the customer.
Say I will buy another €500 watch and in 2-3 years company will decide to change platform rendering it unusable again. Just because they can.

Unfortunately for me I have two Suunto watches, as mentioned above, so now my “investment” has to be a bit higher. Don’t like that…

@RigoS said in Important news concerning our digital services:

bought a Spartan in September, but I don’t have an Android or iOS device. Am I allowed to say that I am very unhappy ?

Sadly, no. Why? Because nobody prevented you from doing a bit of research before shelling your hard earned cash on a device you expect to use for a few years. The news of the platform split is at least a year old. The rumors of Movescount eventually going away are a year old too. Both Suunto 9 and 3 Fitness launched as Suunto app only. Kind of, the hints were there… Why did you ignore them?

@Yannis-Belouris How a potential web interface and killing Ambit2 are connected exactly? I fail to see.