Better sleep analysis - news?

sebas77

I know this is a topic coming up every now and then, but I haven't seen any official reply. I am pretty sure that the current hardware (of the cardio version) is good enough to have a better sleep analysis, therefore it's only a matter of updating the firmware with new algorithms.
Is there any chance this is going to happen? I am ok with the watch as it is, and tbh it's not like knowing my deep sleep phase will change my life, but it was interesting to have to see if my habits affect the quality of my sleep.

tfarabaugh

I hope they add a little more analysis around sleep and activity tracking as well, but they are somewhat limited by the watch hardware and firmware. All it is using to sense sleep is movement; it does not look at HR or other factors so it would have to make assumptions as to quality of sleep based strictly on movement, which I imagine varies widely by person. Some people sleep like rocks and never move and some people shift a lot. The quality of sleep is the same for them, they just sleep differently. I think many of the devices and apps out there are just making wild guesses as they do not have brainwave monitors on or anything. They are just making assumptions based on your movement as well but putting it into a nice looking interface with lots of graphs to make it seem like they know more. It would be nice if TT could somehow detect and quantify the movement on a chart like you can with HR to see when you are shifting around more. They could possibly factor HR in somehow to detect when there is no movement and a lowered heart rate.

TomTom will not comment on planned or future updates publicly (here or elsewhere) so we will just have to wait and see. I would not count on any new features or upgrades coming, you need to make your decision based on the features that are currently offered, and not what may come in the future. Go into it with the assumption that what is in the box is all there is and it will never be updated, to save setting yourself up with false expectations.

I hope this helps, please let me know if this answered your question. If it did, please mark it as a solution so others can look for it if they have the same question.

sebas77

I agree about everything you are saying but nothing I can see can stop them from updating the firmware with a new software that takes in consideration the hr as well. After all the firmware is already slightly different between the cardio and not cardio version

tfarabaugh

What stops them is there is a cost to implementing it and there may not be enough customer demand to warrant the investment. This really a sports watch meant for running and cycling with activity tracking thrown in as almost an afterthought. It is really not competition or the likes of FitBit and others and is not the selling point of the watch so it may not drive enough new sales to make it a worthwhile investment of resources for them. I am not saying it would not be great if they did it, but there is a business consideration and business reality to deal with. In any case, it is a moot point as TomTom will not comment on planned or future updates publicly (here or elsewhere) so we will just have to wait and see.

I hope this helps, please let me know if this answered your question. If it did, please mark it as a solution so others can look for it if they have the same question.

pdh298

I think whether or not it is profitable is to a certain degree besides the point. Another way of thinking about it is the loyalty to customers. I personally bought the watch for all of its features, including sleep monitor and am pretty disappointed to see how basic it is when they clearly have the technology to do better. I have a free one with Android which does a better job, but doesn't measure my heart-rate and is a little vague about exactly how much actual sleep I got.

Another option is someone making some freeware for Playstore/Itunes which is able to link with the TomTom's heart monitor and simply pool that data to produce its own sleep app.

I dunno... Too early in the morning, not sure if I'm making much sense, but I do feel as if something should be available.

tfarabaugh

pdh298 wrote:

I think whether or not it is profitable is to a certain degree besides the point. Another way of thinking about it is the loyalty to customers. I personally bought the watch for all of its features, including sleep monitor and am pretty disappointed to see how basic it is when they clearly have the technology to do better. I have a free one with Android which does a better job, but doesn't measure my heart-rate and is a little vague about exactly how much actual sleep I got.

Another option is someone making some freeware for Playstore/Itunes which is able to link with the TomTom's heart monitor and simply pool that data to produce its own sleep app.

I dunno... Too early in the morning, not sure if I'm making much sense, but I do feel as if something should be available.

This post is over 7 months old and TomTom has left the wearables industry and closed their Sports Division and are no longer producing new devices. Presumably they will just be offering support for existing devices and implementing bug fixes from now on, not adding features to watches that are now legacy devices. At this point, the devices are what they are and we will have to live with them as is.

Bragofsky

I'm very disapointed with tomtom, I own a spark 3 music in late 2007, the first probem I had with it is the bracelet broken every 3 months, the last one I have to buy it because i'm out of warranty then I investigate about the possibility of a sleep analisys, not possible because the device only monitors movement, and now I discover that I have a two year's legacy device.... This is a joke right?

Believe me, I will never buy a tomtom device again, a gps, a watch, even if you have icecreams, I will not buy it.

Regards