Garmin

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Garmin Ltd.

Type	Public: (NASDAQ: GRMN)
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Olathe, Kansas
Key people	Gary Burrell, Min Kao (CEO)
Industry	Technology
Products	GPS receivers, Avionics
Revenue	1.77 billion USD (2006)
Operating income	554.56 million USD (2006)
Net income	514.12 million USD (2006)
Subsidiaries	Garmin International Ltd, Garmin (Asia) Corporation
Slogan	We'll Take You There.
Website	Garmin.com

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), incorporated in George Town, Cayman Islands, is a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell, David Casey, Min Kao and Paul Shumaker, that develops consumer and aviation technologies for the Global Positioning System. 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. 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.

1 Founders and Company Origins
2 Products
3 Company’s Growth
4 Audio Branding
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Founders and Company Origins

Gary Burrell, born in 1937, earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University and a graduate degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He went to work for King Radio, a manufacturer of aviation radios in 1963 only six years after that company had been started by Edward King Jr. in a farmhouse in Olathe, Kansas. A licensed pilot, Burrell led development on some of King’s most successful navigation and communications products. King went on to supply Boeing with radio equipment starting in 1969.

By 1989 Burrell had spent nearly his entire professional career—with the exception of a brief stint at Lowrance Electronics—working for King Radio. During these years the company went through many corporate changes. In 1983 King was acquired by the Allied Corporation and combined with the former Bendix Corporation to form Bendix-King. Allied later went on to merge with the Signal Companies in 1993 to form AlliedSignal which acquired Honeywell in 1999 and then took its name.

Min H. Kao (Chinese: 高民環), was born in 1949 in a small town in Taiwan called Chushang (Chinese: 竹山, pinyin: Zhúshān) in Nantou (南投縣). After serving in that country’s navy he attended National Taiwan University and moved to the United States of America to attend the University of Tennessee where he obtained advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering. While a graduate student, he did research for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States Army. He later went on to work for the American defense contractors Teledyne and Magnavox.

Burrell hired Kao to join his division at Allied’s King subsidiary in 1983. Kao had been working at Magnavox developing military navigation systems using the Global Positioning System constellation of satellites, which at the time was still known by the name NAVSTAR. During his years working with Burrell, Kao led the team that developed the first GPS navigation system that was to be certified for use in airplanes by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Burrell left Allied Corp. in 1989. Convinced that the company should have been more aggressive in pursuing products based on GPS technology, he found management did not agree. He took to interviewing for jobs at other companies including Magnavox, but couldn’t find a good fit. A deeply religious Christian, Burrell had been a founding member in 1984 of Olathe’s Indian Creek Community Church. Having left his job at Allied, he was considering devoting himself full-time to the ministry.

But over dinner, Kao asked Burrell if he had ever thought about starting his own company. Burrell replied that he hadn’t, but then went on to say that if he were to start a company, he would do so only with Kao. Both agreed that the future of navigation would be closely linked with GPS technology.^[1]

At the time the center of satellites was still being assembled. The 1986 explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger had set the system’s construction back by 24 months. The satellites had been redesigned to fit aboard a Delta II rocket. The system was declared operational in April of 1989, and went on to prove a decisive strategic advantage to U.S. and Allied forces in the 1991 Gulf War.^[2]

Kao had been thinking of starting a company, and had recently visited old school friends in Taiwan, one of which was an investment banker, who assured Kao that if he wanted to launch a company, money to help get it started would be available.

Within weeks of their dinner, Burrell and Kao were on a plane to Taipei, Taiwan and within months of that visit had amassed $4 million, which included the combined contents of their own personal savings accounts.

The money was sufficient to hire a dozen engineers and to rent office and work space in Lenexa, Kansas. Initially they called the company ProNav, but later changed it in 1991 when a competitor using the name NavPro on one of its GPS receivers, sued alleging trademark infringement. The name “Garmin” is combination of the two founders’ names “Gar” being the first three letters of Burrell’s first name, and “-Min” being Kao’s first name.

[edit] Products

Garmin StreetPilot 2610 in the cockpit of a BMW R1200RT motorcycle

The company’s first product was a GPS receiver called the GPS 100, a dash-mounted receiver aimed at the marine market, and sold for $2,500 US dollars. It debuted at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The product was an instant hit and generated a backlog of orders for 5,000 units.

Soon after, in January 1991 Kao set off for Taiwan to set up manufacturing facilities in Taipei.

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, and also launched their popular StreetPilot in-car navigation series, starting with a monochrome key-operated unit. This was followed by the 16-colour StreetPilot ColorMap, then the more advanced StreetPilot III. The StreetPilot range is now diverse.

In 2003 Garmin launched the iQue line of integrated PDA-GPS receivers. On Oct 31, 2005 the iQue M4 became the first PDA that does not require a PC to preload the maps. It came with built-in maps of North America.

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 pocket-size 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.

One of the Most Popular of the Garmin GPS units are the Etrex series. These GPS units are colorful with features that differentiate each unit.

Avionics - Garmin has a dedicated division for aviation products such as integrated cockpits, panel mount displays, multi-function displays (MFD), transponders, radar and other related avionics. For example, G1000 is an all-glass avionics suite for OEM aircraft.

[edit] Company’s Growth

By 1995 Garmin’s sales had reached $105 million, and had achieved a profit of $23 million; and by 1999 sales had reached $233 million and profit of $64 million.

By 1999 the company’s products had captured roughly 50% of the North American market share in the market for GPS receivers used in the marine and outdoor recreation markets, according to a market study conducted by Frost and Sullivan. Its own internal estimates showed that its aviation retrofit products had a 59% market share, and that among portable aviation GPS products, it controlled 76% of the market.

By 2000 Garmin had sold three million GPS devices, and was producing 50 different models. Its products were sold in 100 countries, and carried by 2,500 independent distributors. As of August 22 2000, the company held 35 patents on GPS technology. By the end of June 2000, the company employed 1,205 people: 541 in the United States, 635 in Taiwan, 29 in the United Kingdom.

The company started trading publicly on the NASDAQ exchange on December 8, 2000. At that time Burrell owned 19,911,155 shares. Kao owned 20,352,803 shares. Together their holdings accounted for 45% of the stock in Garmin. Kao’s brother, Ruey-Jeng Kao, an attorney in Taipei, owned another 7,984,109 shares, which when combined with Burrell’s and Kao’s shares constituted 54.22% of the shares outstanding.^[3]

In 2003, Burrell retired as Garmin’s Chief Executive Officer and in 2004 retired as Chairman of its Board of Directors. He is now Chairman Emeritus. Kao became CEO in 2003, and Chairman in 2004.^[4]

In 2005 Forbes Magazine estimated Kao’s net worth at $1.5 billion. He has donated $17.5 million to the University of Tennessee. The same year Forbes estimated Burrell’s net worth as $940 million.^[5]

In 2006, Garmin announced it would release all of its software for Mac OS X by the end of the year.^[6]

In 2006, Garmin has begun to rollout a new corporate logo.^[7] That same year, the company announced the opening of its first retail store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.^[8]

Garmin has recently acquired Dynastream Innovations Inc^[9], EME Tec Sat SAS (EME) ^[10] and Digital Cyclones Inc. ^[11]. Dynastream is is located in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, and is a leader in the field of personal monitoring technology — such as foot pods and heart rate monitors for sports and fitness products — and is also a leading provider of ultra low power and low cost wireless connectivity solutions for a wide range of applications. EME Tec Sat SAS (EME) is the distributor of Garmin's consumer products in France and following the acquisition, EME will change its name to Garmin France SAS. Digital Cyclones Inc (DCI) is located in Minnetonka, Minnesota and works towards providing weather solutions for consumers, outdoor enthusiasts, and pilots.

In fiscal year 2006^[12], Garmin reported a total revenue of $1.77 billion, up 73% from $1.03 billion in fiscal 2005.

Google-ling "Garmin" Dec 2000 found 168,000 pages, July 2001= 446k, Aug 2002=600k, Dec 2003=1.5million, March 2004=2.5m, May 2005=4.4m, March 2007 Google found 40 million pages on the internet containing the word "Garmin"!

[edit] Audio Branding

In 2007, Garmin upped its marketing efforts with its first-ever Super Bowl ad featuring Garmin Man as the hero, and Maposaurus -- a monster made from paper maps -- as the enemy. The retro-inspired sci-fi spoof was created by Minneapolis-based Fallon agency and was accompanied by a heavy metal music track -- penned by Musikvergnuegen, an L.A.-based music and sound design company founded by Austrian-born composer Walter Werzowa. In addition to the :30 spot, a full three-minute video was shot -- both featuring the on and off-camera singing of heavy metal artist Steve Grimmett of UK's Grim Reaper fame. The spot garnered the Number One spot for music in the February edition of Shoot Magazine.