Important news concerning our digital services
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Info from Suunto Support (18.01.2019):
“We do not have plans currently to develop a web service connected to Suunto app. The app is being built to deliver key functionality from the mobile phone, and we will work with partner services and communities to provide additional (including web-based) value.”They did not reply to my specific questions relating to support of Ambit 3 Peak. Just this general answer. However it implies that there will be no web access to Suunto App.
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First,
I would like to acknowledge that I understand and support the decision to update the mobile app. However, I do not advise eliminating the web-based service for that I, and other owners of older devices, rely on to transfer data and software updates to/from the device. As several other users point out, this effectively renders our otherwise functional (and expensive) watches obsolete. If Suunto wishes to retain me as a customer, I require one of the following:
-withdrawal of the decision to completely eliminate web-based support for older devices
-Replacement of a non-supported device with the newer equivalent free of charge prior to the full transition to the Suunto app; in my case, this would probably be the Ambit 3 in exchange for the Ambit 2.While I like my Ambit 2, and can attest to its quality and durability after almost 7 years, I am, frankly, tired of the “Apple Model” of needlessly rendering good hardware useless with lazy, greedy software decisions. Therefore, should Suunto opt to ignore the concerns of older device owners, I will be replacing my Ambit 2 with a Garmin.
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@estevez I got this reply today 18th Jan:
"Dear Mark Smith,
Thank you for reaching out to us and letting us know how feel about the transition.
The experience of each member of the Suunto community is important to us, and particularly in the time of change and transition. We understand and appreciate your feedback and we are looking into the best solutions for all products owners to join us in our new service. We are committed to keeping you informed of what these solutions will be via email and on suunto.com, so stay tuned.
For now, you can continue to enjoy your Ambit watch for at least the next year and half as you have been.
Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Charm
Suunto Customer Support Team"… hardly making me feel like they are planning to address the fact they are bricking my watch next year.
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@DmitryKo said in Important news concerning our digital services:
@jean-william-cousin said in Important news concerning our digital services:
no one here can guarantee that there will not be a web access for the Suunto app. You can read again and again the communication from Suunto, this is not what it says
You may believe whatever you want. Any yet-unconfirmed and purely speculative ‘web access for Suunto App’ would be a different incompatible platform that is not a direct immediate replacement for Movescount.
@Brad_Olwin said in Important news concerning our digital services:
I remember issues with Ambit 1 when the 2 came out, essentially not adding functionality that was possible. Suunto eventually added it due to customer demand.
That old Suunto is now gone. You have to face the new reality.
And you know this personally because???
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@Brad_Olwin said in Important news concerning our digital services:
And you know this personally because???
… I can read?
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This is not o.k. from you. We can not download our recordings from AMBIT2 and can not ose this any more. I have paif 300 EUR for this watch and now throw it away? No!!
Make movesscount an open user forum or program a software with which we can download our stuff and use other forum to save our moves. Just closing movescount and giving ambit2 users some extra euros is not a solution. I have learned now how to use my ambit2 and i am really happy with this watch. Do not leave us alone, this is unfair!!! -
@macmonroe I don’t own an Ambit or Ambit 2, but I find this aspect of it troubling as well. The quality and robustness of the physical components of a watch cease to be much of a selling point when the company’s actions suggest that their idea of “Built to Last” is “We’ll brick it for you after seven years or so”.
That they’re apparently still selling the condemned models doesn’t help either. Even if users generate enough of an outcry to change the company’s mind, just TRYING to pull a stunt like this is an appallingly bad message to be giving your customers.
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I just more about this message and for all Ambit1 and 2 users this is really the most abd news you can give us. Without movescount we can not control our watches any more and it renders them really useless.
I think you have to at least program a windows/mac software which let us control our watches and download the recordings onto a computer and convert them into an open file format. My minimum requirements are:- firmware download to my ambit1/2 if it hangs up
- control my watch by downloading setups to my watch
- download recordings and convert them into open fiel formats
If you are able to do that we are independent from your movescount forum and can live with that. With the software you have in movescount forum this should not be a big issue for you.
Thank you.
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Hello, new Suunto owner here. As of today, just ordered a 9 Baro (for trail/mountain running / skiing - downhill/backcountry). Been holding back for months and months but finally pulled the trigger.
It’s the Suunto announcements over the last week or so that have convinced me (which probably seems bizarre to a lot of people?) to make this my next watch.
Partner up, encourage integration. Build around an API, exposing hooks in and out of the Suunto platform and make that as pain/hassle free. Maybe it’s the software engineer in me that applauds this move rather than Suunto attempting to have a do-it-all platform, especially with the limited resources in terms of developers I believe they have? So, I’m buying into the future direction. Fingers crossed!
Like to think Suunto will end up doing something for affected users of this particular announcement so that their watches are at least usable mind you!
Sorry for butting in anyway, just thought I’d throw some love and optimism into the thread
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I don’t think anyone has a problem with updating the smartphone app and phasing out the website. In fact, I would have gladly recommended the brand to other people given the excellent quality of my Ambit2 until the news broke that Suunto will not be providing a way for my watch to access the new app. Like me, lots of customers have older models that function perfectly (and more than a few people have recently purchased the soon-to-be-unsupported Ambit2, etc…), but will not be able to use the new app, or receive any software updates for their devices.
I hope you are right that Suunto will consider the needs of older watch owners, and will provide a way for devices requiring physical connections to a mac/pc to interface directly with the new Suunto App (e.g., by developing desktop apps for macOS and Windows in addition to the smartphone apps). If the company is not planning on developing desktop apps, then customers with obsolete models should have the option to trade in their old watches for updated models that are compatible with smartphone app free of charge.
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@ItAintBroke said in Important news concerning our digital services:
I don’t think anyone has a problem with updating the smartphone app and phasing out the website.
I have a problem with phasing out the website. I don’t own a smartwatch and have no plans to buy one. There are a couple of reasons (which i already whined about in another topic):
- the purchase and on-going data charges are expensive, and a smartphone does not offer anything that I need or want.
- i have trouble with a small screen and with the touch technology. Neither my eyesight nor my fine-motor control is what it was a few decades ago
My understanding, from talking to Suunto’s tech support, is that the company has no plans to support anything except the new app, and that Movescount will be discontinued early in 2020. If that is what happens, I will probably sell my Ambit3 to someone who can use it properly and I will go back to using a simple chrono-watch.
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@ItAintBroke said in Important news concerning our digital services:
don’t think anyone has a problem with updating the smartphone app and phasing out the website
if you read through this thread and a lot of other similar one toned you might see majority of people have a problem in phasing out the website… multiple reason and needs but general message is very clear that a web front end is a must have
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@andrewjknox said in Important news concerning our digital services:
new Suunto owner here. As of today, just ordered a 9 Baro …
Congrats!
Watch out for an email in your inbox 2 years later (after your international warranty is due) starting with
"We are excited about our digital future … " and ends with “… devices are not supported longer.”Typically the first part is formatted in big bold letters there the latter one is smaller and lighter text, so a bit harder to read/grasp if you have a short attention span.
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As an Ambit2S user this news - while understandable - is disappointing.
Can I suggest that to continue to support users like me, Moveslink be updated to allow:
- continued automatic uploading of activity data to third-party sites (strava etc); and
*.gpx etc routes created in third party applications to be loaded onto the watch.
This would retain 99 per cent of the functionality of the watch for me, without the need for a Movescount front end.
Chris.
- continued automatic uploading of activity data to third-party sites (strava etc); and
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I both two Spartan Sports (wife received the other as a gift) to be able to get feedback of athletic performance over terrain. The watches are great and I am pleased with Moves Count and the information displayed. Greater insight than I had years ago. Nonetheless, the route planning and route recording aspect is KEY reason I/we are customers. Routes need to be a part of the technological migration. A GPS-based watch is for navigating as well and it has helped us traverse European cities. I would hate to think I need to stare even more at a small screen and finger-flick the device to see the information that is much more pleasing on a 27-inch monitor. A computer-based method of accessing our training information is imperative. Not shooting the messenger, but asking the messenger to relay. Finland can be different and not implement this “New Coke” idea. It works now and is a great product. ADD features to a phone app - fine, but the degradation of a good product (computer-based access) runs counter to a viable CRM plan.
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I’m very disappointed with this announcement!
My Ambit 3 Sport watch is still working fine and if I can’t change further my settings it will be a big loose! The new app is far away from Movescount with an Ambit you can’t see as many details in the SApp…
The Movescount website is useful to for me and SportsTracker is just a joke beside it!
I don’t ask to do more updates to the existing system, just keeping it like now is fine for me. -
Very disapointed at suunto:
- when buying a suunto watch, we are also buying the services from MC - this all in the advertising. It is like 50% of the value of watch. I feel like I paid too much now.
- SSU and later watches are finally stable with a consistent functon / user interface. User experience was also consistent from the watch to MC, with similar graphic color and style. New app is breaking again the user experience consistency. Even some core functions of Spartan watches like feeling/POI are not supported by the app.
Since I got the SSU, there was like 2-years of “under development” and in 1.5 years, user experience will be again inconsistent. - moving to the apps and telling more third party services, why not, but many users are concerned about data pricacy. Telling go to third parties, some buyers trusted suunto for that point : many didn’t want a smartwatch, but a sport watch.
- when suunto via Mr Kanellopoulos sells mapping solutions that involves import / export many times, are you realizing how much of a downgrade it is after movescount - tell that to any potential customers in store, they jump into Garmin (even casio) who have maps on the watch. This is a total disgrace to even reply with such solution. (nothing personnal Mr Kanellopoulos no worries, i am pointing at suunto).
- selling quality watch with titanium bezels meant this product will last. When 50% of the associated services are externalized, this is just lying to customer to sell products, such as ambit 1 and 2.
- how can suunto lives with planned obsolescence of many of its watch ambit 1 and ambit 2 and partial ambit 3? maybe it is not the most used watches but this kind of planned obsolescence is perfect exemple of what no one accepts anymore. Are you realizing there are tv shows on the topics: does suunto wants to side to side with xerox, canon and on …? For outdoor enthousiasts, for watches sold in the mountains gear stores… what a stupid advertising.
In term of strategy, suunto is just digging its own grave:
(i) killing its highest strength with a quality analysis tool that is widely appraised, mapping tool on large screen, regardless of customer computer equipment, UX consistency…
(ii) breaking up user experience accross the product line
(iii) planning obsolescence (why shall I buy a new products like the S9 knowingly suunto will not be support it, and not offer part of the adveritized functions?)
(iv) selling higher priced products with similar services that subpriced watch companies also offer.
(v) breaking trust a historical customers who used to buy every 2-3 iterations of watches (stable demand), who actively made recommandation (cheap and effective advertising) - maybe there is new demand from Asian countries, but can you really compete in the long term againt the locals or the very large companies?No business analyst can understand how a company can breaks its ecosystem this stupidly. (i am a financial analist, i known exactly how some of my large coporate customers jumped into brankrupcy).
Keep working on your niche market: simple reliable precise effective outdoor and sport entousiasics. Do not compete against the cheaper offers with little services and the smartwatch industry!In the end, I still have the X9 suunto watches, the application still works on win10. Very old products are more reliable.
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I registered here on the forum today just to express my disappointment and frustration caused by the announcement. I don’t have anything constructive to say, for now I will just wait what the next 15 months will bring. However, if support for Ambit2 will not be provided, I will make sure that no one I know will ever buy Suunto products again. That said, let’s wait and see. Hopefully they come up with some way to support the customers who bought their expensive products. Anything else would be a customer-trashing brand suicide and on top of all unecological.
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@DmitryKo said in Important news concerning our digital services:
@Brad_Olwin said in Important news concerning our digital services:
And you know this personally because???
… I can read?
So please show me where it says the old Suunto is gone.
Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing
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So in order to make sure Suunto hears another voice (mine) regarding features which I consider a must have when Movescont goes away, here you go;
1 - must have web access in order to do effective route planning, POI management and data review. I’m a mountaineer, climber and hiker and being able to prep ahead of time using multiple resources on my desktop / laptop is a MUST.
2 - ensure that I can continue to use my Ambit2. I happen to have an Ambit2 and a Spartan. My Spartan is my day to day watch, training device and often used on outdoor trips. However, when I am on extended backcountry trips I bring my Ambit2 thanks to being more rugged, less costly if it gets destroyed and better battery life. Please do NOT make my Ambit2 obsolete because there isn’t a non-Bluetooth way to connect to it.
