| July 24, 2003
Garmin Begins Shipping Its GPS-Integrated iQue™ 3600 PDA
OLATHE, Kan./July 24, 2003/PRNewswire — Garmin International
Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), announced today that
the company’s highly anticipated iQue
3600 — the
first personal digital assistant (PDA) with integrated Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology — began shipping this
week to leading electronics retailers and traditional Garmin
dealers within the United States at a suggested retail price
of $589.
"
We are thrilled with the early response to our iQue 3600 and
we’re excited to deliver this full-featured, GPS-enabled
organizer," said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s director of
marketing. "This handheld creates a new utility in the PDA
market by integrating organization and navigation into a single
device and bringing the benefits of GPS location technology to
new and existing PDA users."
"
Garmin’s iQue 3600 is a great addition to the growing and
diverse family of Palm Powered mobile devices," said Charlie
Tritschler, vice president of product marketing, PalmSource,
Inc. "Its world-class GPS technology combined with handheld
functionality demonstrates the flexibility and innovation achieved
through the Palm OS platform."
The iQue 3600 is the first PDA to feature a built-in GPS antenna
and integrated turn-by-turn navigation software. Using an ARM
processor powered by Palm OS® 5, the iQue 3600 combines Garmin’s
proprietary Que™ technology with the unit’s Address
Book and Date Book. The integrated result is that users can look
up an address or appointment on their iQue 3600 and navigate
to it using the mapping function, following turn-by-turn, voice-guided
directions to their destination. Their progress is presented
digitally on the device’s 320x480-pixel, transflective
TFT color display.
The iQue 3600 marks the first in a series of planned future
products that will combine Garmin’s expertise in location
technologies with open mobile computing platforms, such as the
Palm OS. Early
enthusiasm for the iQue 3600 provides an indication of additional
opportunity in the PDA market that the company wishes to capture.
Based on this market potential, Garmin is shifting its R&D
focus from CDMA and follow-on GSM handsets to devote more engineering
resources to the development of products based on open mobile
computing platforms, including those enabled with Bluetooth technology
and other wireless capabilities. Garmin will monitor long-term
opportunities in the wireless market and will continue product
enhancements in support of international consumer sales of the
NavTalk GSM as well as opportunities in vertical applications
as they
arise.
The iQue 3600 earned the prestigious "Best of Innovations" Award
in the Mobile Office category of the Innovations 2003 Design & Engineering
Showcase competition at this year’s International Consumer
Electronics Show. The iQue 3600 won acclaim for its form, function,
value and marketability.
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 and NavTalk are registered
trademarks, and iQue and Que are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or
its subsidiaries.
Notice on forward-looking statements:
This release includes
forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business.
Any statements regarding the company’s
future product introductions, plans and objectives are forward-looking
statements. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed
in this release may not occur and actual results could differ
materially as a result of risk factors affecting Garmin. Information
concerning risk factors that could affect Garmin’s actual
results is contained in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 28, 2002 filed by Garmin with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy
of Garmin’s Form 10-K can be downloaded from www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html.
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