Forerunner 101 Can Be Pre-Ordered from Amazon.com
I just noticed that Amazon.com has started accepting pre-orders for the Garmin Forerunner 101, the little brother to the Garmin Forerunner 201. What's the difference?
The Forerunner 101 has:
- no connectivity-- PC interface removed,
- different power source-- uses two AAA batteries instead of a rechargeable,
- increased thickness-- unit is 0.2" thicker, probably to accomodate batteries, and
- decreased price.
It will be interesting to see if this product makes as big a splash as the Forerunner 201 did. The 201 is one of the most popular products that we've ever featured on Operation Gadget. Will the 101 sell like hotcakes because the street price is below the magic $100 price point?
If you have any thoughts about the Forerunner 101, I'd love to hear them.
Comments
I like the idea of user replaceable batteries as well as a lower price, but the lack of PC connectivity is a concern. So far Garmin has released three firmware upgrades for the Forerunner 201, fixing bugs and adding new features (firmware is a device's internal operating system). If the Forerunner 101 can't connect to a PC, guess what folks? No firmware upgrades for you. Freely available firmware upgrades are a way of life in the consumer GPS industry, and I personally believe it's false economy to save 20 or 30 bucks and lose the ability to upgrade your GPS receiver. Garmin has already gone down this path with the Geko 101, and there's a price conscious, less technical consumer segment that is buying them (and probably has no clue what firmware even is).
In addition to firmware upgrades, PC connectivity also means being able to transfer your data to logbook and mapping software, where it's a lot easier to view and analyze.
Hopefully the running community will understand these limitations before opening up their wallets and purses and buying Forerunner 101s based only on price point.
That's my two cents...
Joel
Posted by: Joel McNamara | March 3, 2004 7:51 PM