Originally Posted by
CliffordK
It is odd that some seem to be able to do everything but make a phone call.
The Karoo is basically a phone.
There are no other cycling cycling computers that come close (as far as I can tell).
Having long runtimes and something not too big are things many people want in a cycling computer.
The Karoo 2 has marginal battery life (5h, I believe). It's close to being too big. The original Karoo was much larger (I didn't find it too big when I tried one). Hammerhead clearly thought the original was too big (given they went with a shorter runtime).
Some people complained that the Garmin 1000 was too big.
So, you might get a crappier cycle computer to make it a crappy phone.
You make these things a phone and people might expect them to be as good as the phones they already own. If so, then they'd have to compete in a humongous market that like only two companies really make money in.
Garmin actually made a phone hiking GPS thing. It wasn't successful. I think the problem is they ended up with a crappy phone that was too expensive.
People already think the cycle computers are too expensive. Garmin and Karoo (a much smaller company) have enough work to make a good cycling computer without making it a phone too.
Plus, it's another bill every month.
Originally Posted by
CliffordK
So, for example, some systems are apparently able to do real time tracking, or even emergency alerts.
The Garmin use your phone for this. The real time track sucks battery life, from what I've seen.
Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Texting? That might help if one is stuck somewhere.
Texting uses the voice network, which the Karoo doesn't support.