Garmin 2005 Annual Report Download - page 35

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 35 of the 2005 Garmin annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 120

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120

5
satellites. The satellites and their ground control and monitoring stations are maintained and operated by the United
States Department of Defense, which maintains an ongoing satellite replenishment program to ensure continuous
global system coverage. Access to the system is provided free of charge by the U.S. government.
Reception of GPS signals from the satellites requires line-of-sight visibility between the satellites and the
receiver. GPS receivers can be very compact, and it is not necessary to have a large dish antenna to receive GPS
signals.
Prior to May 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense intentionally degraded the accuracy of civilian GPS
signals in a process known as Selective Availability (‘‘SA’’) for national security purposes. SA variably degraded
GPS position accuracy to a radius of 100 meters. On May 2, 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense discontinued SA.
In a presidential policy statement issued in December 2004, the Bush administration stated that the U.S. does not
intend to implement SA again and is committed to preventing hostile use of GPS through regional denial of service,
minimizing the impact to peaceful users. With SA removed, a GPS receiver can calculate its position to an accuracy
of approximately 10 meters or less, enhancing the utility of GPS for most applications.
The accuracy and utility of GPS can be enhanced through augmentation techniques which compute any
remaining errors in the signal and broadcast these corrections to a GPS device. The Federal Aviation Administration
(“FAA”) has developed a Wide Area Augmentation System (‘‘WAAS’’) comprising ground reference stations and
additional satellites that improve the accuracy of GPS positioning available in the United States and portions of
Canada and Mexico to approximately 3 meters. WAAS supports the use of GPS as the primary means of enroute,
terminal and approach navigation for aviation in the United States. The increased accuracy offered by WAAS also
enhances the utility of WAAS-enabled GPS receivers for consumer applications. The FAA announced on July 11,
2003 that the WAAS system had achieved initial operating capability and that the system was available for
instrument flight use with appropriately certified avionics equipment. Since that time, the FAA has installed
additional ground reference stations and has launched additional WAAS satellites.
Recent Developments in the Company’s Business
Since the inception of its business, Garmin has delivered over 14 million products, which includes the
delivery of over 3 million products during 2005.
New Consumer Product Introductions
In 2005 Garmin launched 40 new consumer products. Among these was the nüvi™. The nüvi combines a
full-featured GPS navigator, language translator, MP3 player, audio book player, currency and measurement converter,
world clock, and digital photo organizer in one device.
Garmin introduced several new versions of its popular StreetPilot® line of portable automotive navigators in
2005. The c-Series™ (c310, c320, c330, and c340) features Garmin’s easy-to-use touch-screen interface combined with
turn-by-turn voice directions. The c340 adds text-to-speech (voice directions that speak street names) and utilizes real-
time traffic information in select major metro areas throughout the U.S. and Europe through Garmin’s separate GTM
10 receiver. We also introduced the i-Series™ (comprised of the i2™, i3™, and i5™), which are Garmin’s smallest,
most inexpensive line of automotive navigators. Garmin also expanded upon its 2600 series of navigators by
introducing the StreetPilot 2720, which adds text-to-speech and optional real-time traffic capability, and the StreetPilot
2730, which further adds the capabilities of XM traffic, weather, and radio and an MP3 player. Finally, in December
2005 Garmin began shipping its StreetPilot 7000-Series (7200 and 7500), a new family of automotive units, that
display navigation, entertainment, traffic, and weather information on a large, seven-inch touchscreen.
In September 2005, Garmin announced that Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group would begin offering a
customized version of Garmin’s StreetPilot c330 portable automotive navigators for rental at 138 Dollar and Thrifty
automobile rental locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. This was followed in January 2006 by the
announcement that Enterprise Rent-A-Car will begin offering a customized version of Garmin’s StreetPilot® c340