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‘Cat’, ‘Pigeons’ … throw one amongst the other and we have something interesting on our hands.

Garmin have just announced a new regional (Chinese) variation of the aging Garmin Forerunner 235 (review ed here). It’s the Garmin Forerunner 235 Lite or 235L.

Source: Jiaqi Yao – Thank You

Strikingly, the ELEVATE sensor is updated to the new version; the price goes down by $100, or so; and some elements of functionality are taken out such as bike mode, CONNECT IQ (!) and recovery time. Here are the specs (link to: garmin.com.cn). If you can translate anything else of special note then please let me know.

I’ll cut to the chase as to why I think we are seeing this.

It’s the new Challenger brands that are starting to make an impact.

Perhaps where someone once spent $250 they now feel comfortable paying significantly less (c$120) for a non-Garmin brand that appears to be fully featured.

Conveniently my crystal ball had this one in its sights (below) 😉 . Whilst this phenomena is only just starting to hit the USA and EU with products like the AMAZFIT STRATOS (£150 triathlon watch…FULL of features that MOSTLY work and it’s made well), we haven’t really yet seen the effects this is going to have. These will not simply be effects on the premium brands but also on the distribution chain. What do you think could happen to specialist online retailers who get well over 50% of their revenues from Garmin products?

Perhaps more interesting speculation for a new product this year…