Garmin Ltd, the largest manufacturers of GPS systems for aviation industry was founded by Garry Burrel and Min Kao in 1989. The company was named after the two founders - taking ‘Gar’ from Garry Burrel and ‘min’ from Min Kao. Garmin Ltd which sells more than 50 GPS models in more than 100 countries around the globe is a group of companies having two main subsidiaries, Garmin International Inc, based in Kansas, USA and Garmin Corporation, the major production unit based inTaipei, Taiwan. 

 

Garry Burrel, an electrical engineering graduate started his career in 1963 in King Radio, a company which was making radio equipment, navigation devices and other communication products for aviation industry. For the next twenty-five years, he had been associated with King Radio and it was in 1983 he met Min Kao who was then working at Magnavox to build NAVSTAR, the GPS constellation of satellites. Both Burrel and Min together developed the first ever GPS navigation system that was approved by US Federal Administration and was soon to be used in airplanes.

 

In 1989, he left the King Radio group and soon started his own company with Min. The company was named ProNav initially and had a few engineers as workforce and was operational at a rent office. In 1991, the company’s name was changed to Garmin and became a global name in the GPS navigation systems market.      

 

The specialty of products of Garmin is their diverse product line, superior quality, and basic functionalities at affordable prices. Starting with GPS receivers that can be used by mariners, the company launched handheld GPS units which were widely used during the military operations of the US during Gulf war in early nineteen nineties. It was only in the early 2000’s, the company started to manufacture personal GPS receivers and in-car navigation units (streetPiot). Followed by these products and the advanced streetPiot III, other products like eTrax series of GPS units and Geko series of handheld receivers hit the market in the subsequent years. During 2003 and 2005, Garmin released iQue series of integrated GPS receivers for PDAs and launched the iQue M4, a GPS receiver which comes with in-built maps of North America. The uniqueness of the iQue M4 is that it does not need a PC to get maps uploaded to its system.

 

Garmin also launched its StreetPilot i-Series which come with transflash card where the required maps are loaded. This series has been rolled out in three models - i2, i3, i5. Except i2, the other models have colour display and i5 has a feature which allows the maps to be preprogrammed into its system.

 

StreetPilot c-series, which were launched in 2005, are a bit sophisticated and advanced GPS receivers which incorporate many advanced features like colour touchscreen, traffic alerts, Bluetooth and live weather updates etc. The Nuvi product line from Garmin is another series of sophisticated GPS receivers which are compact in size, but have many useful features like bluetooth, FM transmitter, better screen features etc.

 

Garmin has been a dominant player in the aviation industry and its wide range of aviation products include Multi-function Displays (MFD), panel mount displays and other related products for the use of aeronautics.

 

Garmin has rolled out various satellite navigation systems that can be used for different applications. Depending upon the use, Garmin offers a broad category of navigation systems which are as follows:

 

This includes GPS for automotive vehicles, motor-cycles and traffic receivers. The most popular satnav models include nuvi series, StreetPilot series, zumo series, GTM series, Quest etc. Nuvi series and StreetPilot offer a number of GPS models for cars. They are compact and offer various features depending on the specific models. Most of the models offer basic navigation features like touch sensitive colour screen, preloaded maps (2D and 3D) and a pre-installed database of Points of Interests (POI). They also come with optional MP3 player, maps, software for SD cards etc.

 

Zumo series GPS units are specially designed for bike riders. They are convenient to use and can be operated by left hand while you are riding on your bike. They come with bright display, bike mount and some advanced features like MP3 player, image viewer, SD slot for storing maps and visual data.

 

Zumo series include Zumo 400 series and Zumo 500 series. While both series have basic features and functionalities, however 500 series come with Bluetooth compatibility, FM traffic updates and a bike mount.    

Garmin produces smartphones like Garmin mobile 10 and Garmin Mobile 20 with integrated GPS navigation system. They come with GPS software, Bluetooth compatibility, SD card and pre-loaded maps. Once the data card is inserted in these handsets, they function like stand-along satellite navigation systems.

 

All Nuvi series satellite navigation systems are the best travel companions and can be helpful while you are on move. Likewise, Mobile 10 and 20 can be used like handhelds or PDAs providing crucial business information as well as GPS navigational assistance.