Garmin entering the dive industry?

[Rhyno]

Garmin posted this video on facebook a few days ago. The date interestingly coincides with the start of DEMA. Any thoughts on what this could be?

 

[Akimbo]

I refuse to use Facebook. What does it say?

 

[jstreetley]

I refuse to use Facebook. What does it say?

It's a 9 second teaser animation of a diver with text: "The descent begins 10.31.17".
The title includes #garmin #descent. Presumably the product name will be 'Descent"

 

[Akimbo]

Thanks mate. I wish they would sell their chipsets to dive computer manufacturers. The GPS just working on or near the surface is fine with me.

 

[Rhyno]

GPS integration would certainly be nice. It would save me the extra step of looking up lat/long based on site names.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Why would Garmin want to enter such a niche market as dive computers? I suppose the product could simply be a GPS receiver (for surface use) that can survive diving depths. But then, they might as well add a dive computer to it. This should be interesting.

Imagine if they have been secretly working on the problem of underwater inertial navigation and developed a commercial product. Now THAT would be cool. I am the king of low-tech, but even I would bite at that.

 

[victorzamora]

I'm wondering if it's as simple as an expansion of the Garmin action camera lineup with a waterproof model.

 

[Rhyno]

I'm wondering if it's as simple as an expansion of the Garmin action camera lineup with a waterproof model.

Isn't their camera (or at least a housing) rated for dive use? I'm pretty sure I've seen dive video recorded on one.

 

[Akimbo]

Why would Garmin want to enter such a niche market as dive computers?

To sell chipsets & software. Economies of scale are critical in a business like theirs because significant costs are up-front in semiconductor and software engineering. Selling chipsets "could" relieve them of two of their next most expensive operating costs, marketing and tech support. The actual cost of producing chips is comparatively minor so additional sales would effectively carry very high profit margins.

Hint to dive computer manufacturers:
GPS would motivate me to upgrade my computer... too subtle?

 

[maj2]

It is a year old, but this Oct 2016 bit might give a bit of an idea of what to expect:
Descent, Garmin’s next Fenix4 model?