Garrett Vortex Delays And New Features

As we recently reported there have been what some would say is back peddling by Garrett since the launch of the Vortex back in June. These delays seem to be increasing in length.

Garrett released a statement explaining the delays and why they are necessary. The statement reads as follows:

GARRETT

Sport Division Update: July 23, 2024

From the beginning, the Vortex detector series was designed to include a graphic LCD that would allow feature set improvements and updates after it was launched. At least a couple of the user controls originally intended to be part of a fall update have now been shifted into the initial production release.

Hearing that they were really desired by customers, we are rolling them in now – instead of asking our customers to make a free software update later. In addition to the high resolution iron discrimination, our engineers are now implementing additional iron boundary controls and the option to control the number of target tones on some Vortex models.

The result is a high-quality detector with even more user-controlled options, and the ability for Garrett to potentially further refine these setting controls with future Vortex updates. Making these updates will add a few weeks to the initial production schedule. We recognize the concern this will cause some Garrett customers, but your input into product features has been important ti use with the Vortex series. We trust that you will be more pleased with the end product.

Interesting, but this really doesn’t reconcile with the original product launch and what they were saying then. During the launch, there was no mention of any features not yet on the machine that would be coming down the line. The entire launch focused on a finished machine that was ready to hit the stores in a few weeks. But how can that be if, as we are now told, the Vortex was still at the prototype stage? Launching a prototype without disclosing its status can have serious consequences for the brand and customer relationships. This is evident in the negative response Garrett has received from some circles since the launch.

Transparency and honesty are crucial for building trust with customers. Garrett should have been upfront about the product’s stage of development, they could have then managed expectations, gathered valuable feedback, and fostered a stronger relationship with their customers.

The Vortex is intended to be “user-updateable.” Why is it then a problem for users to update the machine with these additional features that were intended to be added via an update in the fall? Sure, it’s good to have the updates in place when customers purchase the machine, but surely the additional features would have been present in the machine before the big launch? Again, there was no mention of missing features yet to come. And Garrett has clearly stated that the Vortex was in development for several years. Plenty of opportunity to add all the features before showing the machine to the world.

“Hearing that they were really desired by customers, we are rolling them in now.” Is Garrett trying to tell us that they have only just realized that customers want these added features? Didn’t they have “testers” out there already who were supposed to be providing feedback and suggestions? Either Garrett were not listening or they need better testers.

“Making these updates will add a few weeks to the initial production schedule.” Why? If the updates were intended to be rolled out in the fall, then it shouldn’t add anything to the production schedule as all you are doing is a simple update that your customers could have done themselves.

Conclusions

It seems that Garrett may have been operating within a corporate bubble all these years. Perhaps they only hear what Garrett fans say instead of going out to the wider world of experienced, independent detector users to gain valuable insight into what is expected in a machine launched in 2024.

Garrett has claimed that the Vortex will exceed the performance of other high-end machines on the market. Yet they have not demonstrated this in the real world. We have seen nothing from Garrett “tester” videos that show the machine finding anything that a cheap Chinese detector would not have found. Show us what the Vortex can do that other machines cannot.

There are machines on the market now from Minelab and Nokta at a lower price point but with a better feature set than the Vortex. These machines are also user-updateable! Do they also provided a higher level of performance? Until the Vortex is in users hands we do not yet have anything to compare with.

It is doubtful that we will see the Vortex in stores before September, but as soon as they are available, Treasure Hunting World will get hold of one and put it through its paces and measure its performance against the cheaper machines from Minelab and Nokta.