Garmin GPS

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), incorporated in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao (hence the name GarMin), that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System. Its subsidiary Garmin International, Inc. serves as headquarters for the Garmin Limited companies and is located in Olathe, Kansas, which is located in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area in the United States. The largest operating subsidiary and primary production facility of Garmin Limited is Garmin (Asia) Corporation (Chinese: 台灣國際航電股份有限公司), located in Sijhih City, Taiwan, a suburb of Taipei.

The company’s first product was the GPS 100, a panel-mounted GPS receiver aimed at the marine market, priced at $2,500. It debuted at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition in Chicago. The product was an instant hit and generated a backlog of orders for 5,000 units. In response to the demand thus created, Kao traveled (January 1991) to Taipei to set up manufacturing facilities. Handheld GPS

Another early product, a handheld GPS receiver, proved popular with military personnel serving in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War. In the early 2000s, Garmin launched a series of personal GPS devices aimed at recreational runners called the Forerunner. A similar wrist-worn GPS device with two dimensional GPS tracking and waypoint projection called the Garmin Foretrex is popular among day hikers, off-road mountain bikers, and sailboat racers.
The compact eTrex "Yellow" model, showing a northwest travel direction to a destination 538 m to the west.

One of the most popular of the Garmin handheld GPS receivers, the compact eTrex series, was introduced in 1998. Within the eTrex line are several models packaging several different features and options. The original eTrex, commonly nicknamed "eTrex Yellow", was a sensation when it first appeared, as it offered a lightweight (5.3 oz/150 g), waterproof, palm-sized 12-channel GPS receiver to backpackers, hikers, and others afoot in remote areas, along with a battery life of up to 22 hours on just two AA-size batteries. The eTrex 'Yellow' eventually became Garmin's entry-level GPS receiver. Other more advanced eTrex models include the Summit, Venture, Legend, and Vista, each with various additional features such as WAAS, altimeter, digital compass, city database, and highway maps. Many models come in color and expandable-memory versions.

The Geko series is a later compact line of handheld GPS receivers aimed at the budget or lightweight hiking market.

In 2004 Garmin introduced its 60C line of handheld GPS mapping receivers, featuring increased sensitivity and storage capacity along with a battery life of up to 30 hours in battery-save mode. This was followed by the 60Cx and 60CSx with improved color map displays. The 60Cx and 60CSx have been used as primary navigational tools on several adventure and exploration trips to remote areas around the world, including a rafting expedition down the entirety of the Amazon River in 2008.

With the GTM-11, GTM 20 and GTM 25, a Garmin GPS device receives and uses Traffic Message Channel (TMC) information. Also, some Garmin nüvi (1690, 1490T, 1450T, 1390T, 1390, 1350, 1260, 1250 and 265WT, 265T, 265W, 265, 255w and 255) comes with an integrated TCM receiver.

iQue PDA receivers:
In 2003 Garmin launched the iQue line of integrated PDA-GPS receivers. On 31 October 2005 the iQue M4 became the first PDA that did not require a PC to preload the maps. The American version came with built-in maps of North America, while the UK version was supplied pre-loaded with maps of Western Europe.

On The Road GPS:
In October 2005, Garmin released the StreetPilot i-Series, compact GPS navigators which come in three models, i2, i3, i5. The i2 has a monochrome display, and maps need to be loaded on a Transflash card. The i3 is similar to the i2, except it has a color screen. The i5 has a color screen and the maps come preprogrammed into the device. More advanced versions of the StreetPilot include the c-Series, some of which sport large colour touchscreens, FM traffic notifications, support for weather and information updates from MSN Direct, and Bluetooth support.

In October 2006, Garmin began shipping the nüvi 660, a pocketsize widescreen successor to their nüvi 300 series. The 660 added bluetooth, FM transmitter, enhanced screen brightness and screen size, all in a small "flat" size.

Additionally, Garmin's Zumo line is designed specifically for motorcycles. The Zumo 550 and StreetPilot 2610 with slightly different feature sets have been marketed as an OEM offering by BMW for their motorcycles as the BMW Zumo and BMW Navigator III.

Lately Garmin has released its 1000's series which includes the 1690 which incorporates the ability to use Google Local Search to have more up to date Points of Interest and has the ability tap into the 3G network. Garmin has furthered its technology in this field to make one of the thinnest models in the 3700 series as well.

Fishfinders:
Garmin also manufactures a line of sonar fishfinders, including some units that also have GPS capability.

Laptop GPS:
In April 2008 Garmin launched Garmin Mobile PC, a GPS navigation software program for laptop PCs and other computers, based on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Nüvifone cellphone:
In early 2009 Garmin announced it would be manufacturing a location-specific cellular telephone in cooperation with Asus. Called the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60, the United States release on AT&T was scheduled for 4 October 2009.[26] Four other models in this line have since been released—two Windows Mobile-powered models for the European and Asian market, and two Android models, one for the Europe/Asia market and another for T-Mobile USA.

Personal trainers:
The Garmin Edge and certain models of Garmin Forerunner is a suite of GPS-enabled devices for use while running or cycling.

Most current Garmin devices can display the current location on a map. The maps are vector-based and stored in the built-in memory or loaded from additional flash media. The built-in (or 'basemap') displays all country borders and major cities. Garmin offers a wide variety of maps for purchase, including detailed road maps, topographic maps and nautical maps. Non-commercial maps are also available and can be displayed on most Garmin GPS devices. The open map directory "Maps 'n Trails" lists all freely available maps created by many individuals, often based on data from the OpenStreetMap Project and hosted on Mapcenter or individual websites. The quality of the maps varies greatly. It is also possible to create a map from various vector or raster resources. Software tools for custom maps creation are available on the Internet.

The maps used by Garmin products are currently provided by Navteq. Map errors are handled using NAVTEQ Map Reporter. Errors can be reported using Garmin's report a map error page or using the NAVTEQ map reporter.

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