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March
11, 2003
Garmin® Offers Detailed Topographic Data for
U.S. National Parks
OLATHE, Kan. — Garmin International
Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), today introduced
the company's latest cartographic product, MapSource® 24K
TOPO, as a complement to Garmin's extensive line of handheld
GPS devices that have electronic mapping capabilities. The 24K
TOPO CD offers topographic data for most of the major national
parks, national forests and recreational sites in the United
States, displaying such information as contours, summit elevations,
park amenities, and points of interest. The map data is comparable
to the 1:24,000 scale paper charts provided by the United States
Geological Survey — the most detailed topographic data
available.
"
With the high-definition mapping on our 24K TOPO product, hikers
and hunters can have more confidence navigating in America’s
pristine national parks and forests," said Gary Kelley,
Garmin's director of marketing. "When the data is
loaded on select Garmin GPS devices, users will be able to look
up the nearest ranger station, view the grade and contour of
a particular ridge and navigate along a trail. The end result
is less worry and more enjoyment of the outdoors."
The vector-based mapping on the 24K TOPO CD consumes
less memory on the GPS device and provides the user with object-oriented
data. So users can simply scroll over a location and get information
about the elevation of a peak, the name of a trail or information
about one of the points of interest on the electronic map. Users
can search the points-of-interest database to find various park
amenities such as visitor’s centers, picnic areas, wilderness
campsites, scenic overlooks, ranger stations, restrooms, boat
ramps and lodges.
The first version that Garmin will offer is the
Western national parks, including those in Hawaii. More than
40 of America’s
most popular national parks and recreational areas are included
on the first CD.
The data will be compatible with a wide array
of Garmin GPS devices with mapping capabilities, such as the
GPS V®, Rino® 120, eTrex®
Legend and Vista, GPSMAP® 76 and 76S, eMap® and GPS III® Plus. Even
Garmin handhelds — like the GPS 12, eTrex, Rino 110, GPS
72, Geko™ 201 and several others — without mapping attributes
can transfer waypoints, routes and tracks on a PC using the CD-ROM.
The MapSource 24K TOPO CD-ROM will be available
in three volumes — the
Western Region, Eastern Region and Central Region. Each region
will carry a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $116.65.
The Western Region is expected to be available in the second
quarter of 2003, while the Eastern and Central regions will follow
later this year and early in 2004.
Garmin International Inc. is a member of
the Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) group of companies, which designs
and manufactures navigation,
communication and information devices — most of which are
enabled by GPS technology. Garmin is a leader in the general
aviation and consumer GPS markets and its products serve aviation,
marine, outdoor recreation, automotive, wireless and OEM applications.
Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal
subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the
United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual
pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations
department at 913-397-8200. GARMIN is a registered trademark,
and BlueChart® is a trademark of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. |