| November 18, 2003
New GarminŽ GPS Units Tout Bold Color Displays, Abundant Features
OLATHE, Kan./November 18, 2003/PRNewswire — Garmin International
Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), today unveiled the
GPSMAP® 60C and GPSMAP
60CS — two of the most color-rich
handheld devices enabled with Global Positioning System (GPS)
technology for the outdoor recreation and marine markets. With
these products, Garmin has again raised the bar of user expectations
by offering a 256-color transflective TFT display that provides
great mapping visibility in almost any lighting condition.
"Our 60C and 60CS deliver the kind of color that hikers,
hunters, anglers and mariners say they want in their handhelds," said
Gary Kelley, Garmin’s director of marketing. "These
products deliver a brilliant, sunlight-readable display and
enough battery life and internal memory to help users navigate
with
ease — whether in town, in the woods, along the trail,
on the lake or offshore."
Resembling Garmin’s popular Rino® series in look and
feel, the 60 Series offers a lightweight, rugged and waterproof
design. The color display on the GPSMAP 60C and the GPSMAP 60CS
sets these products apart from other GPS handhelds. The GPSMAP
60CS has all the features of the GPSMAP 60C and adds two sensors — an
electronic compass and barometric altimeter. These sensors,
when combined with GPS technology, provide enhanced bearing
and elevation
readings to the user.
The GPSMAP 60C/60CS units boast one of the richest color displays
of any handheld available on the market. The high-resolution
(160x240 pixels), transflective display vividly renders detailed
cartography and depicts various map features in brilliant color.
And while the color display will dazzle the eyes, it won’t
drain the batteries. Providing 30 hours (typical use) of battery
life, these products are ready for any kind of outdoor adventure.
With 56 megabytes of internal memory (plus an 8-MB routable
basemap of North and South America), these units are fully
compatible
with Garmin’s extensive line of MapSource® software
products, including City
Select®, U.S.
Topo 24K™, U.S.
Topo™, Recreational Lakes™ and BlueChart®. Users
can download map data from these optional MapSource products
on a PC using rapid USB connectivity — another first
for a Garmin GPS handheld device.
Garmin has also packed these products with extra features to
deliver additional value to the user, including a dedicated
geocaching mode, indoor/outdoor GPS games, an integrated outdoor
calendar,
and enhanced track log features. In addition, the GPSMAP 60C/60CS
units provide users with automatic route calculation to addresses
or points of interest, offering turn-by-turn directions and
tone alerts along city streets or trails using MapSource City
Select
or 24K Topo software, respectively. The addition of this routing
feature ensures that users get the superior navigation guidance
to urban or off-road destinations.
For hundreds of thousands of GPS users, geocaching* is a fun
outdoor activity. Garmin’s 60 Series provides intuitive
pages to aid geocachers in the pursuit of their "quarry." After
a cache is found, these units will automatically apply a date
stamp, log it in the Outdoor Calendar, and point the user to
the next closest cache.
Garmin has also loaded these
units with its proprietary "geolocation
games" — Virtual Maze, GekoSmak, Nibbons, Memory Race
and Gekoids (GPSMAP 60CS only) — that turn the outdoors
into a giant gameboard. These games can be played individually
or with others.
Further, these products provide outdoor enthusiasts with the
day’s best hunting and fishing times, along with the
sunrise/sunset times and moon phase, on the integrated Outdoor
Calendar.
Garmin has also enhanced features associated with its patented
TracBack® technology. With the 60 Series, users can retrace
their path to any selected track log point on the map display.
Users also have the option to save any portion of the 10,000-point
track log for later review and navigation.
Other specific features of the GPSMAP 60C/60CS units:
- Built-in basemap: General map data including highways, major
roads, river, lakes and borders
- Dedicated buttons: Mark, Enter, Quit, Menu, Find, Zoom Out/In
with a eight-position rocker pad
- Antenna: Quad-helix with
external antenna capabilities; WAAS GPS receiver with accuracy of 10 feet
(or better) in North
America
- Sunlight-readable display: 256-color transflective TFT display
(1.5 x 2.2 inches; 2.6 inches diagonally)
- Long battery life: 30 hours (typical use) on two AA batteries
- Multi-platform navigation: On-road or off-road navigation;
accepts data from Garmin’s MapSource products (City Select
for driving, and U.S. Topo and 24K Topo for hiking,
Recreational Lakes for freshwater and BlueChart for saltwater
applications)
- Waterproof to IPX-7 standards – can be submerged in
one meter of water for up to 30 minutes
- Lightweight: 5.4 oz.
- Waypoints: 1,000 with comment and symbols, position averaging,
waypoint projection with selectable distance units
- Routes: 50 routes, point-to-point or automatic; options for
auto, manual and distance-based route transition
- Tracks: 10,000 track log points, with 20 saved tracks
- Alarms: Proximity, anchor drag, and off-course alarms; built-in
alarm clock that wakes up the unit
- Navigation Pages: Fully configurable (users can turn on/off
and reorder display sequence)
- Trip Computer: Fully configurable, with dual-position format
display
- Others: Selectable audio tones and color-schemes, stopwatch
with auto lap feature, perspective highway page
The GPSMAP 60C is expected to be available in January
2004 at an MSRP of $482.13, with the GPSMAP 60CS
following in
March 2004
at an MSRP of $535.70. Both units will ship standard
with a lanyard, belt clip, USB interface cable,
owner’s manual
and quick-start guide.
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,
GPSMAP, Rino, MapSource, City Select and BlueChart are registered
trademarks, and U.S. Topo 24K, U.S. Topo and Recreational Lakes
are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.
* To learn more about the exciting outdoor
activity of geocaching, visit www.garmin.com/outdoor/geocaching. 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 are
forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events 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. |