[having spent 30 years in tech, including 10 as a CEO] my experience has been that VC investments, M&As and IPOs are all a function of high growth, profitable markets. The power-based training market has clearly become one of them (think Peloton, Zwift, TrainerRoad, Strava, Training Peaks RWGPS, Sufferfest). We have already seen several such investments and acquisitions. In big stakes markets, you move fast or you die. The Garmin-Tacx acquisition will not be the end of it.
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Well you really lost me. Over the last 20 years I started an open-source initiative, I’ve been working for open-source companies, and I spend all day long dealing with “free as in beer” software. The ultimate in software freedom. And yet somehow I’ve never felt restricted by my Garmin Edge 520. All Wahoo really did was make the bike computer configurable from a mobile phone, and made an easier user interface. Not rocket science for an Android device. But it certainly begs the question as to Wahoo’s motivation to a) use Android as OS for Elemnt/Bolt b) hide that fact and ignore open-source license requirements, and c) lock it down tighter than any Apple product. 
Interesting take from DCRainmaker on the acquisition.
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Am I the only one seeing this as positive? Both Garmin and Tacx have incredible customer support and I’m very excited to seeing what they can bring to the market.
It’s not clear that Garmin’s head is in that direction. In fact, [having spent 30 years in tech, 10 as CEO], I suspect that Garmin will get rid of Tacx NEO software utility or let it die gracefully with minimal support. If you have been following their strategy over the past several years, they have been working to make their head unit as open as possible and work with all upstream and downstream hardware and software developers. Contrast what they have done vs. SRM for example. As another example, at a recent Internet of Things (IoT) conference I attended, I spoke with Garmin’s API group and they have a major business development initiative to get their Ant+ protocol into as many sensors as possible (FRC and bluetooth are major competitors).
As for TrainerRoad’s strategy for growth an ultimate monitization of it’s investment, that’s a separate discussion - happy to talk to you offline.
At least quote the relevant point.
I’ve done plenty of open source work myself. But again, this isn’t what I’m talking about. Garmin as a company does all sorts of things to block off their products. You are overly fixated on specific device software, and not the obvious things like proprietary plugs and cables, proprietary mapping, and all sorts of things they do across their entire range of products.
Agreed. My old Hammer and new H2 are awesome trainers. The flywheel in Sim and ERG feels so good. And like you, both aligned with my P1 pedals surprisingly well.
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They (Garmin) are not all-in on ANT+, as their Garmin Canada (ex Dynastream) division does SOCs that handle both ANT+ and BLE. But for sure the more devices use ANT+, the happier they are since they own and license it.
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Stop it. I’m already envious.
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There are lots of good discussion points coming up in the article comments
That’s very interesting! As you can imagine, at the IoT conference BLE was highly prevalent (it’s becoming a big competitor to ZigBee, Z-wave, WiFi) for short range, low energy apps. Perhaps that’s why when I was pushing on the guy I spoke with about BLE he wasn’t pushing back too hard.
Funny - that’s exactly the thought I had when I read the article over on DC Rainmaker. Putting aside what it might mean for TR users for just a moment, it would make pretty good sense for Garmin to buy TR. They’d not only get the top notch training platform and the engineers behind it - they’d instantly get the incremental direct consumer connections. Plus, the Calendar features just increase the customer stickiness/depth - a perfect fit for their growing ecosystem. Now this is coming from someone who hasn’t used the Tacx training platform, but I’m betting that it’s not at TR level. Again, I’m not saying I’d be necessarily pleased at such a turn of events as a TR user…but I’d understand and respect it.
So weird, Wahoo is a one trick pony and you want to drag Garmin International’s aerospace and marine divisions into the conversation.
Ok lets talk obvious stuff. I’ve got an Edge 520, it predates the Wahoo bike computers. It has a micro-USB connector for charging and other stuff. I ignored the proprietary maps and loaded OpenStreet Maps on it. It supports 3rd party apps, and I use genuinely useful 3rd party apps. My files sync automatically to a laundry list of 3rd party fitness sites. Quite honestly, its more open than Wahoo Bolt which is running a locked-down version of Android. But Wahoo I configure from my mobile phone. From where I sit Wahoo does more to block off their product. I could use Wahoo and trade one set of minor annoyances for another. Let’s just agree to disagree.
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'… not at TR level" is the understatement of the day. While they have a “training” element in their platform, it actually runs on another app than the rest, and the integration (a very big word in this case) with their cloud app is dismal at best. So you select your plan on the cloud app, run the trainings on your device, and hope that the results will upload. What they do have that’s nice are the videos (which other platforms also use), it’s very nice content - but no streaming, you have to download them one by one from a cloud provider with a garden hose for bandwidth. The desktop part (the “D” in TDA), running on MacOS + Win10, runs on BLE only, with Tacx trainers only. I had a free month to trial it, and well, here I am.
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I wonder which products you refer to?
In the marine space, I’ve used Garmin chartplotters & displays because they are the most standard compliant (standard N2K cables and connectors). If you want to see proprietary-out-of-spite cabling, check out Raymarine.
In my cycling garmin products it’s just a USB connector.
Things like the GPS Map handhelds, the Bluechart b.s., and such. I would always recommend Navico stuff over Garmin by a mile. Some people are hyped on the new Garmin instruments displays but I refuse to touch that. The bog standard B&G 20/20s are rock solid and a lot more plug and play and reasonably priced. As far as plotters I would run a dedicated computer, either a laptop or brick with a tablet.
Raymarine is indeed terrible, but that is bottom of the barrel consumer tier stuff.
I’m still sore about what happened to MotionBased after Garmin bought/destroyed them. GarminConnect never replaced what I liked about MotionBased.
I don’t use any of my Garmin products any more, and I’ve never owned anything from Tacx. But I want a healthy indoor training ecosystem, so I hope Garmin doesn’t blow this.
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On the DCRainmaker video he commented that this may already be in the works.
There are some interesting conversations in the comments about possibilities for Zwift jumping into hard goods.
I think its probably inevitable.