Garmin Connect compared with MotionBased

Hopefully Garmin Connect (“Connect”) is under heavy development. MotionBased (“MB”), it’s predecessor, was acquired by Garmin and will be replaced with Connect sometime soon. MB has always had poor performance, but offers many useful and interesting features to analyze GPS and workout data, so much so that I happily paid $10+/month for MB before Garmin bought it.

Connect is more attractive and (seemingly) more modern. I can tell this the occasional Java stack traces that reference the Java Faces API. It’s performance is even worse than MB (over 18 seconds to load the “Dashboard” and similar delays viewing/updating activities). MB needs about 10 seconds to change views, which was noticeably slower than any other site I use regularly.

The upshot is that I’ve found SportTracks, a closed source desktop app for Windows which does most of what I want (analysis, mapping, import/export). It’s a black box and I would prefer to use an online service, but it does offer interesting features and analysis, which adds a lot of value to the Edge product itself.

There are lots of GPS and cycling related mapping services available. Most support either route planning, ride logistics (team/group planning), training/analysis, or data conversion. MB has the most comprehensive feature set, but is not a leader in most categories (especially compared with the SportTracks application). Garmin Connect is still missing most of the MB functionality.

I would have expected Garmin to aggressively push interesting and innovative features with the Conect service as it could tie users to their hardware and create buzz. The Edge is an adequate bicycle computer, but not significantly better than others without GPS (making GPS courses and routes work is beyond the capability of with MB or Connect). Effective use of the logged GPS data would make the Edge much more exciting to use.

If another company offered a competitive product with an interesting web site I would replace my brand new Edge 705. My interest in this is piqued, but the Edge/Connect combination underwhelms. A better MB than MB/Connect would also be compelling, though it could be hard to justify a viable business to compete with the (unfulfilled) promise of Garmin Connect.