In the bike computer market, Garmin and Wahoo are the clear leaders, so much so that “Garmin” has become synonymous with bike computers, similar to how Google is for search engines. Despite the dominance of a few brands, however, new ones are also entering this highly competitive space, aiming to carve out their own niches.
This year, among others, two new European companies – Jespr and Absolute One – have entered the fray. While neither brand is likely to be recognized on a group ride just yet, conversations with their founders revealed their ambitions to change that. Even with some acceptance that dethroning Garmin or Wahoo is a long shot, they’re pushing forward – and that’s made us think whether this is a David vs. Goliath tale with a predictable ending, or whether smaller players actually offer us something better that we’re largely ignoring.
How strong are Garmin and Wahoo?
Garmin and, to some extent, Wahoo’s stronghold in the cycling computer space is almost cultural – many cyclists say they’re “uploading to their Garmin” regardless of their computer’s brand.
But figuring out Garmin and Wahoo’s exact market share isn’t a particularly easy task. Both companies produce more products than just cycling computers – Garmin does everything from wearables to navigators, and Wahoo similarly produces a whole host of products with indoor trainers taking up a large chunk of its portfolio. But looking at the two giants’ financial reports, it’s obvious that they are at the top.
Garmin’s fitness segment (which includes cycling computers) generated US$1.34 billion in net sales in 2023. Strava, which due to the nature of the platform, records which devices people use, revealed that in 2023 the most popular device among its cyclists was the Garmin Edge 530, a computer that was launched in 2019.
Garmin has seen plenty of growth – even if it has recorded some losses over the years too – and its range of cycling computers has come a long way since its GPS-enabled cycling computer, the Edge, was released in 2006.
Wahoo’s first cycling computer was the Wahoo Elemnt, released in 2015. The Elemnt was well-received and helped Wahoo gain market share from Garmin, but it’s been hard to say the Elemnt’s simplicity and connectivity made it a true rival to Garmin. Wahoo has also seen some financial difficulties and been on the brink of bankruptcy – though the company said last year that its financial woes are behind it. Wahoo’s exact revenue figures are not publicly available, but in 2021 they were around US$500 million.
In 2017, Hammerhead brought out its first full-featured cycling computer – the Karoo – though for quite a while it remained a niche product. In 2021, the company was acquired by SRAM. Without clear market numbers for Hammerhead, and SRAM being a privately owned US company, its revenue figures are estimated and fall somewhere between US$725 million to US$1 billion – still far below those of Garmin.
So even if Hammerhead and Wahoo are there, can anyone really push Garmin off the top spot? Just recently, Garmin reported record-high revenue in its Q3 results, with the fitness segment lifting the heaviest weight to bring the total revenue for the third quarter of the year only to US$1.59 billion, a 24% increase compared to the prior year.
Other relatively established players fighting over the crumbs in this space include Sigma, Bryton, Polar, Lezyne, Cateye, and Stages. But are these names – or new names – out there to topple Garmin’s position? Or does anyone even want or have the means to do that?
What are the underdogs doing?
For this article, we chatted with two newcomers. These are far from the only underdogs in the industry – there are lots of other computers coming out beyond Garmin and Wahoo. You could get an iGPSPORT iGS630 Bicycle Computer with every sensor your heart desires from AliExpress for less than £40 (~US$50), and if we started to list every other maker the list would be endless and ultimately flawed by the time we hit publish.
So the question that had been in my mind since I’d seen the most recent computers come into the playing field was: Are we missing out if we just keep buying one of the bigger two or three names?
That all depends on what you are looking for in your cycling computer. If you’ve never had one, you want a user interface that is as simple as possible, for example.
From speaking with the teams behind Jespr and Absolute One – both selling for more than €550 (US$580), and so placed near the big names in pricing – it was clear that the basic concept of a cycling computer is already quite finessed and if you solely focus on tech spec, you’re likely to conclude that the market leaders are the winners. Well, unless you focus on one single aspect, such as battery life, like Coros did earlier this year. But even then, you really need to get things right from the get-go or prepare for a lot of negative PR.
“I think there are certainly some strong alternatives to Garmin and Wahoo, the Hammerhead Karoo being the strongest by far (and I’d argue, a stronger competitor these days to Garmin than Wahoo is),” says Ray Maker, more commonly known as DC Rainmaker, a long-time expert in this field. “Of course, being a stronger competitor doesn’t always materialize in sales or market position, as is the case for Hammerhead. A unit that objectively has more and deeper features than Wahoo, but even with SRAM’s backing, just hasn’t figured out how to translate that into shifts in consumer purchasing. Beyond that though, things get very challenging.”
As Maker implies, to build a quality product, you do need some capital and investment in more ways than one. Garmin usually launches new products every two to three years, with Wahoo following a similar route, and to keep that going, in the first nine months of 2024, Garmin spent US$735 million alone on research and development.
If I were a cycling computer maker, just hearing that from an industry stalwart would put more than deep hesitation into my plans. But then again, if you don’t try you don’t win. And Jespr and Absolute One are both out there, firmly believing that their products have a market position – even if it is not that of Garmin.
“People take the technical specs of high computing and then say ‘this is not the same’ – but this is not where we try to compete with our competitors,” says Ariane Künzli, one of the three owners of Jespr. “There are already very good products in the market – we do not have to compete with them. We want to do this in a very different way and also try to reduce the information at some parts.”
Less is more – or is it?
In essence, the “very different” route that Jespr is taking – similarly to Absolute One – is that of “less is more”. The two of them are both offering a cycling computer that is yes, in many ways giving you the same functionality as your trusty Wahoo or Garmin, while at the same time doing things differently. They have been built differently to give their users that distraction-free, intuitive user experience.
“We do not believe that you can ride your bike on the limit and have 12 data fields on the screen and understand what is shown there,” Jespr’s Künzli says.
It’s hard to disagree with her. We all probably know someone who has a power meter but they’ve never connected it to their computer, or they’ve never changed the standard screen fields, despite the endless opportunities for tailoring them.
It’s difficult to say whether that is because of the users, or the devices, in this case. But the more intuitive the device is to use, and the more you can tailor things on the device screen and without needing to use your laptop or your phone, the better.
Yet everyone seems to approach simplicity in a slightly different way. Take, for example, screens. Absolute One has decided to forgo the touch screen and relies on three simple buttons, whereas Jespr is a much larger device with a full 4-inch (10.2 cm) touch screen and buttons. Then there’s the question of visual appearance and size.
Absolute One partnered up with high-end consumer electronics company Bang & Olufsen’s design house Valeur Designers to design its device and says, “The One is designed with the precision and elegance of Danish aesthetics.” Jespr, on the other hand, is going down a road of seeing the computer as a standalone, rather large device that functions without pairing it with a phone or another platform – a somewhat similar concept to what Hammerhead was doing with its Karoo 2. With the introduction of Karoo 3 earlier in 2024, the company decided to do without the SIM card as it said less than five 5% of customers actually used that functionality.
“I think one point, which is hard to transfer as a message is, it’s more like a smartphone than a regular cycling computer,” Kuenzl says of Jespr.
But the appearance of the computer is only one part of the puzzle; what the insides are capable of doing is much more important for those who use these devices for navigation and data recording.
Better, easier, faster, newer
Considering the time cycling computers have been around, one might assume they really do all we can possibly imagine them to. But look at any new product emerging – there’s always something to do better or totally revamp.
Coros decided earlier in the year that its USP (unique selling point) is incomprehensibly long battery life, while the two newcomers we spoke to are taking a more cautious approach with their claims.
“It’s incredibly difficult to bring forth a cycling computer, especially one with mapping and routing,” Maker says. “The ability to properly route on a global scale, not just paved roads, but also bike paths, gravel roads, and MTB terrain is incredibly difficult. It generally takes 2-4 years after a bike computer company introduces routing to their units, until it’s actually usable.
“For example, we see Coros at the edge of that journey now with the Coros Dura, and in their case it’s not even offline routing (it requires cellular connectivity if you go off-course). And even for them, I merely have to ride five minutes before it starts giving me wrong/missing directions. And of course, Coros has their significant experience in watches to lean back on, but as we saw this summer, that gave them a bit too much confidence at launch, and they had to delay initial shipping repeatedly.”
Absolute One is very focused on accuracy, while still keeping the data easily digestible. Phillip Lucas, Absolute One’s business development lead, highlighted the discrepancies with different computers’ elevation data and, similarly to Jespr, the amount of features today’s cycling computers can have.
“Some people get everything out of every option in every menu that the computers offer,” Lucas says. “But looking into the issue – more than half of users just don’t change anything. They might change one or two fields because they’ve got a heart rate monitor or they’ve got a power meter, but we find that for a large portion of the market, the huge array of small little adjustments is unused. So we wanted to bring a simple product that avoids configuration paralysis and is just straightforward to use.”
As such, Absolute One’s key selling point is the quality and accuracy of its location and elevation metrics, achieved through advanced sensor technology and “sensor fusion” algorithms, combining data from multiple sensors, including GPS, barometric pressure, wheel speed, incline, and accelerometer, to then cross-validate and refine altitude and incline measurements.
“The quality of the data you see is our key thing,” Lucas explains. “The One has an ultra-broad range of sensors – it continually measures more than 10 riding dynamics, whereas most computers will measure GPS position and some have a barometer. They will do their best possible estimation based on those variables to give you some data. But if we want to present the rider with all the data from all the sensors, they can have a screen with 20 data sets – nobody can use that. So we use a fusion algorithm – you could call it AI – that works to define our altitude and define our incline. We use GNSS, we use barometric pressure, wheel speed, wheel incline sensor and accelerometer. So five data sets, go into telling you just your grade.”
Jespr, on the other hand, has focused on simple visualisation of data and by using an integrated mobile data connection, the device is able to show you at what speed and from which direction the wind is blowing at any given time, for example, and allows live tracking of other riders and creating key points on the route for, say, race feed sections.
Are Jespr and Absolute One perfect as they enter the market? Hardly so. Even if both devices seem quite refined from the outside, they are going to need plenty of updates. And despite both of them leading with a minimalist, easy-to-use approach, they’re also behind in other features that might be deal-breakers for some. For example, Absolute One doesn’t support electronic shifting compatibility as of yet – and Jespr has a battery life of seven hours, which is quite far behind market leaders, especially those with solar charging capabilities.
“You’ve got to start somewhere and we decided that the way to launch is with robust, basic functionality, based on the pillars of what our USP is in,” Lucas says. “Our pillar of USP is accuracy. Di2 electronic shifting and even e-bike systems are on our road map. Our goal is to launch a software update once a quarter for the foreseeable future and – just like multiple other now-established, but once-upon-a-time new players – we’re going to add functionality as we go and add capabilities. So the Di2 is on the road map to come out in the calendar year next year, and there are multiple new things that will come out.”
Similarly, Jespr said they are working on updates to the device firmware to optimise its battery life. Looking at devices such as Hammerhead Karoo, which with a firmware update nearly doubled its promised battery life, this isn’t probably too far-fetched a promise – on paper.
What about manufacturing – does it matter where products are made?
A lot of the cycling industry’s products are made in Taiwan, and that’s no different for cycling computers. Wahoo’s computers are made there, as are Garmin’s – despite the fact that Garmin is Swiss-domiciled. Both Absolute One and Jespr are committed to manufacturing in Europe; Jespr is based in Switzerland and Absolute Cycling, which makes the Absolute One, is in the Netherlands.
Absolute’s decision to manufacture in the Netherlands stemmed from a desire for greater control over quality and a commitment to a circular economy. The company also plans to offer a reconditioning program, allowing them to repair and refurbish returned devices – but setting up production in Europe wasn’t easy.
“That was one of our greatest challenges,” Lucas explains. “In fact, we started with the big vision six years ago, and then we started looking for suppliers and everyone’s like, ‘Nobody makes that here, Yeah, you need to buy that in Asia’. But we don’t want to buy that in Asia – our vision was not just equality of product to buy, but equal access to service. So the way we’ve designed the product is when a component breaks, we can repair, we bring it back to our shop and we slide the computer out of its case and we find the component and we remove it and replace it.
“We wanted to have a level of circularity in it as well, which meant that we had to reinvent the wheel and find other small partners who are capable of developing the techniques to manufacture the product here in the Netherlands. So that was a big part of our development roadmap as well up until today; finding the right partners in Europe.”
Similarly, Jespr’s production takes place in Switzerland, with a focus on sourcing electronic components and assembling the devices locally to support European manufacturing expertise and reduce the environmental footprint associated with global supply chains.
“It is hard to find expertise in Europe anymore, so I agree with these people who say that it’s a little bit scary,” Kuenzl says. “I think it’s very important that we gain back some knowledge and we find them – but you have to try a few times until you’re at the right. So, it takes time to find them,” And though Künzli admits a repair scheme isn’t something Jespr is currently offering, the company’s focus on prolonging the lifespan of the hardware with software updates has its roots in sustainability; instead of expiring hardware with bi-annual new models, Jespr’s aim is to focus on the software.
“We are talking about the software-first concept and when you compare to other manufacturers, they always bring new hardware to buy with the big software update,” Künzli continues “And we also want it so we can provide a new feature, a change and say ‘It’s all working on your hardware’. So this is something which is similar to the smartphone or an app.”
Should you opt for the smaller makers?
If you think back four years, the likelihood of many people riding a Hammerhead Karoo, which had just launched, seemed quite slim. But four years later, the brand is much more established and it has, as Ray Maker also points out, many features that the other big players might miss.
When it comes to tech, things move fast, and that means that things also outdate fast. Investing in a small company computer can be a bigger risk. What if they fold – is your device going to stop working? For some of us, that risk is worth taking, whether it is because of the features that these new brands offer, or simply to support the company.
“I think for many of us, when we see a startup try and break into an established field, we often cheer for them to succeed,” Maker says. “Perhaps give them the benefit of the doubt. But concurrently, I think all too often reviewers will ignore too many real issues, assuming ‘it’ll get promised updates’ to fix something. But by the time that happens (Absolute One has a planned list of features through next year), those updates will only bring it to competition levels of three-to-five years ago, not now, nor in the future.
“It’s a careful balance to encourage startups to enter the field, but also to defend the consumer’s wallets with realism. Some startups do awesome things, either because they take an entirely different approach, or because they’re opening up new landscapes.”
And maybe that’s the note to end with. Whether you choose to stick with a tried-and-true brand or explore the features of an up-and-comer like Jespr or Absolute One, it’s clear that the bike computer market is evolving and new features are coming out not only in Garmin and Wahoo guises. And as these newer companies grow and refine their products, they might just reshape what we expect from our cycling computers.
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