More than just form factor, Garmin has done an incredible job of using GPS technology to make products for enthusiasts, rather than the masses. Cycling computers, running watches, golf range finders, marine, aviation, hunting, etc. If you're a nerd for any of those activities there's a good chance you use a Garmin, not an Apple or Android.

I've bought more Garmins than Smartphones. I think I've purchased:

3x Edge 305, Edge 500, 2x Edge 810, Edge 820.

Garmin has the advantage that their products are much more likely to get lost or smashed. So they get to sell a lot of replacements.

The customer service is also excellent; my son has a Vívofit Jr, and when the screen went haywire they replaced it—no questions asked. Quite happy with my experiences with Garmin over the years.

The majority of users already pull the top bitrate. The lower bitrates are only used by mobile clients and users on very bad connections.

I'm sure cable execs are kicking themselves for not implementing usage-based billing two decades ago. Nearly every other service is usage-based but no one complains, because they've always been usage-based.

The difference is that cable companies want it both ways. They charge you a minimum for a set amount of serivce AND they charge you if you use more than that AND you don't always get what you pay for (since it's "up to" xx mb/s)

With water if I don't use it I pay zero. If I use xxxx gallons I pay for xxxx gallons and if I turn the tap and water doesn't come out I get a bill credit at the very least.

With the internet I pay $50/ month whether I use it or not, if I pay for 100gb and I use 105gb then I pay $20 for the overage and if I have DOCSIS and everyone in my neighbourhood is using their internet then too bad for me that it doesn't work.

I think most other items are usage-based because when you use them they are gone. When you use electricity or water, more needs to be generated/cleaned.

Not so with Internet. It is more like phone service. If I make a call, nothing needs to be rebuilt for another one.

I believe it is obvious to people and that is why there is push-back.

Competition existed in the past.

From who? Dial-up SLIP/PPP and ISDN could hardly be considered competitive with a DOCSIS product. The market is far more competitive now, with increased FTTP deployments and advanced wireless.

Before the frequencies were reallocated to mobile usage, Sprint ran a cable-modem-over-wireless product called Broadband Direct that was pretty nice for its time. The system had a 30+ mile range to the towers, so lots of area could be covered with few towers.

The DSL/cable discrepancy also used to be smaller, and there were more, smaller cable providers.