Can Garmin Survive After Smartphones Nearly Killed GPS?

Yes, because Garmin is WAAAAY bigger than the consumer market. They dominate the Aviation space, Shipping market, etc.

Definitely. I’m a pilot and Garmin dominates the aviation industry. They also have the best screens and interface for pilots.

The beauty of GPS is that it does not rely on internet signal.

At least they didn't sleep at the wheel like executives at Blockbuster, Kodak, Fuji et al.

CNBC helping garmin in marketing

There is this independent KRplusr, Company Man, who does segments called “How Big Are They?” He should do Garmin.

My 16th birthday present, the day i received my drivers license, was a Garmin navigation system for my car and it allowed me to go anywhere in Chicago and the surrounding area without fear of getting lost starting day-1, and it was so comforting knowing I was always going to make it home no matter where i was. I'm really glad Garmin made it after smartphones came out.

A GPS company based in Kansas - If only Dorothy knew. She and Toto would have found their way home sooner!

As a pilot I trust GARMIN Avionics it always keeps you going when the going gets tough.

Garmin dominates the aviation, marine, and outdoors markets.

garmin making radars for ships, boats, airplains, helicopters and so on, company gonna do good

Of course they'll survive. They're dominating Aviation right now

"even airplanes" understatement of the year

If only Garmin made webcams so they can get their VP a better one 🙊

I live in an area where cell phone signals are hit and miss. I always have a Garman in my glove compartment fully charged and ready to go in case I can't get a signal to my phone. Also: Nice 20 minute commercial for Garmin CNBC!

Garmin already dominates the sports wearables market. I’d like to see them diversify their products to take on the likes of Peloton with their acquisition of TACX. Garmin’s retail channels need to be looked at more closely as their products are often sold and serviced in marine equipment retailers. They need to build on their strengths and be more approachable by the casual sports enthusiasts.

Ask this question to any runner or cyclist lol

Smartphones haven't killed GPS. It uses GPS as GPS is a navigation system owned and operated by the US government.
Just a correction on the title.

It has come in handy to have when camping because most of the time there’s no cell service

The biggest advantage to my Garmin GPS is privacy. No one is tracking me, knows where I am, and no one like Google or Samsung is listening to every word I say. Its also a completely self enclosed system - other than when I am updating the maps (its free). No monthly fees, no roaming fees, no endless ads, no pop-up notices other than those pertaining to navigation, and no "user account" required ..... its off the grid ! Beautiful. As far as I am considered, cellphone GPS users are the same types that actually take vertical videos..... dipsticks!

No cell service on the high seas. Still need GPS. You also never depend on one form of navigation. Remember paper charts, they're still used.

Of course garmin will survive, anyone in the fishing industry knows that.

Garmin and Rand Mcnally, are the two most used navigation system in the trucking industry. Google maps and waze do not know truck specific routes and will route big trucks onto roads that have low underpasses.

Nokia's Ovi Maps/Here Maps were one of the pioneers in mobile navigation, with true offline navigation.

I would argue that the people who really need a GPS for work or exploration are still going to get a dedicated GPS.

A tech company that should've fizzled out following the growth of more capable smartphones decided to diversify and innovate.
Someone forward this to BlackBerry & Nokia.

Nostalgic first seen a gramin device in 2011, in a college field trip and was higly impressed

I’ve been wearing a Fēnix for a few years now and I absolutely love it. I don’t need a touchscreen and fancy amoled display and a lot of the extra fluff other brands tout. I love the available sizes and it’s memory in pixel display, which makes it incredibly easy to read in daylight. Oh, and the incredible battery life is a huge plus. I personally like the traditional round design of the watches, they have a unique look to them. I hope Garmin will be around for a long time.

Standalone GPS killed itself once they charged you huge amounts of money to update their map data , when phone apps do this free.

With security concerns of Google knowing where you are at 24/7, I can see stand alone GPS car devices being useful.

I like this format, keep up the great work.

Not mentioned was the growth by acquisition strategy.

They make the best running watches in existence, yes of course they can!

Looks like a marketing video😅

I love how the Garmin interface works a lot better and more intuitively than most GPS apps built for smartphones. Plus, once I put the GPS onto the dash I want to leave it there, I don't want to be constantly switching it in and out each time I go for a drive in my car, that's the main reason why I bought a stand-alone Garmin GPS unit for my vehicle.

I've had about a dozen different smart watches over the past decade with 3 of them being Garmin, and the Garmin ones are my favorites. I love the software, interface and battery life.

Great job on the research and analysis by Nikolay Todorov. Outstanding information

Garmin: .... You need us when you are beyond cell phone or internet coverage
Elon Musk: Hold my Starlink logo beer mug.....

I usually drive older cars and like to have a Garmin GPS unit in the upper left-hand corner of my windshield. It is just nice to be able to look up at a glance and see if the street I want is the next left or the left after that.
I also like to use my phone mostly as...a phone.

I remember back in the early 2000's when I was a Cable Guy...before all the mobile GPS units and Cell phone GPS became "affordable". I used to drive around with an old Dell Latitude C series laptop with Windows 2000 and Microsoft Streets & Trips connected to a Delorme USB hockey puck receiver on the dashboard. It was a blessing at the time and then all my guys found out about it and they started calling me on the nextel all day long asking me for directions. We've come along way since then.

Much of Garmin's future income is unseen and from car companies. That's an incredibly profitable and stable market. Makes perfect sense that Mercedes, BMW and Honda would harness Garmin's raw legacy data and AI software around it.

*"Garmin makes the best tactical smart watches for hard core enthusiast."*

And for the Military and government contractors there's Tremble Navigation. I met the company founder when I dated his daughter in 90'. I have a friend who used to use a dash mounted GPS called a TOM TOM. I've occasionally used Google maps when I don't know where I'm going. The problem with GPS is big brother is watching you all the time. Thanks.

I have a Garmin navigation device in my car. I only use my cell to talk, text, and get on the web if needed. I have a ski boat with cruise control made for tournament water skiing, and the GPS antenna is from Garmin. It also has an accelerometer (the same component that flips your smart phone screen). It holds the speed within the quarter mile per hour tolerance.

I know they're big outside the consumer market, but their fitness trackers are the best in class imo. it's just that they aren't as well established as fitbit and obviously cannot compete with the apple and samsung watches. Anyone that's serious about fitness tracking should go with garmin.

Garmin is more than GPS (the US system), depending on the product they also work with the Russian system and the European system called Galileo which is far more accurate than the US GPS system. It's worth being aware that all three systems can be used by American customers.
Disappointing to see this info left out, its fairly valid and important.,

wish i still had one in areas without reception on my annual road trips as cell signal is so discriminate.

The problem with non-Google, Apple, Bing navigation apps (my parents had Ford Sync): entering an address in entirety in a fixed format is a struggle

I think they'll adjust innovation shouldn't be a problem for them.

Garmin GPS work when there is no cell service. When you are road tripping this is priceless and well worth the cost of buying a separate GPS. Plus you can upload your own maps to Garmins so they can be incredibly detailed too. For the day to day Google maps is fine, but if you are traveling the GPS still has its uses

Pilot in their cockpit be like :
Everywhere i go i see this thing

People are glued to smartphones because it replaced almost a dozen items (radio, camera, music player, video player, telephone, wrist watch, clock, gps devices, phone book).
Never take that thing in your pocket for granted.

No. They are not willing to keep their maps updated. I paid for a map update and it didn’t show roads built 4 years ago.

I’m sat here looking at this as I wear a Garmin Forerunner watch, I have a Garmin Edge on my bike and the Garmin Connect app on my phone.
Garmin make more than just car GPS

I bought a garmin tactix and wear it all day, i like all the fitness metrics, golf yardage, and running with the map on my wrist. The stress and body battery is usually fairly good at indicating how I feel on a particular day and if im feeling ill or not. Expensive, but has features i like and use daily

Time flies, the GPS Receivers 30 years ago was so big, we transported it using a shockproof briefase like pelican case.

I wish I had friends and family that could lend me five million dollars...

Most of the this dedicated devices are more reliable than multipurpose devices.

There are so many areas that you lose phone service.
Even areas in the farms in Wisconsin.
I will still map it out on a paper road atlas.
When I go to farms I do live haul .

I've seen a few demos of that Garmin Autoland function on a G3000 equipped Piper. I can see that being a game changer.
If Garmin can do a full Avionics suite for GA aircraft im pretty sure they can pull off a full Mobile-onics suite for a Ford Fusion.

How much did Garming pay for this? This was literally a 20 minutes add.

Problem with cell phone google maps is when the message, "cannot reach google at this time." This never happens on my car GPS. Always have a signal.

that background music is great

In the 80's I was a utility worker and we covered 5 counties. In any given day I used a street map 15 to 20 times. When GPS's came on the scene I remember thinking how incredible it was not to have to use a paper map. It was a huge step forward.

Garmin has running watches that are a lot better than the Apple Watch, but they also cost twice as much. I have a Garmin Fenix 5 Plus from 2018. It's awesome being able to run a marathon, listen to music and track your route and heartrate without carrying a phone. Tiny women running with a huge iPhone strapped to their upper arm look hilarious. But almost everybody runs with their phone.
I run 20-25 miles/week and I only have to charge it once a week. Nobody except Garmin makes watches that can last through a marathon. Constant GPS and heartrate tracking totally kills the battery. The Fenix goes from 12-day battery life down to 18 hours with GPS/heartrate activity tracking on. Then if you're playing music over bluetooth it goes down to 8 or 9 hours. The Apple Watch doesn't even last two hours with GPS + heartrate + playing music, and that's after it tries to make the battery last longer by not actually checking the GPS/heartrate that often, so the Garmin is much more accurate. And you actually still need your phone with you if you have the Apple Watch because the Spotify app doesn't actually work on the watch. It needs to get the music from your phone. And the Apple Watch is a lot harder to see in sunlight, and it's a lot harder to use a touchscreen when you're sweaty.
And in 2019 Garmin came out with the Forerunner 945 which is a little cheaper and a lot lighter than the Fenix watches, and it lasts 10 hours with GPS + heartrate + music.
But as soon as Apple decides they want to compete with Garmin that's gonna be bad news for Garmin.

For the regular consumer, Google maps is just soooooooo good

They just need to also be dash cams and have better mounts and even integration kits. They could also use Bluetooth ODB-II dongles to integrate more closely with the car and support wireless rear and front cameras that could be tied into the license plate lighting wiring or simply use advanced batteries. Granted much of what they can and will do could be done with your smartphone but it's a matter of which you will leave with your car. Integration kits and mounts are the key.
But I'm glad they've broadened their options and remained focused on quality.

I live down the street from their headquarters. It's still growing.

Garmin:
Hardware.....good
Software......it works.........not there strongest side.

Lol did Tom Tom survive the smartphone GPS

I have bought 3 watches so far, keep up the good work and I will keep.buying!

The potential advantage of an in-car GPS system is recording (assuming a rear-sensor as well) and recording 7x24. Garmin is also selling a lot of $700-$1,200 Smartwatches (I am wearing one right now) - the appeal is mostly people that workout a lot though.

too bad Garmin didn't have better wifi for the interview

The Achilles heel of smartphone maps is that they don't work without internet
Once offline maps come as standard, dedicated GPS units are history

I used to sell Sat Nav's in a retail store in the city of Southampton, The home of Garmin's Europe headquarters. I used to get people from them come in my shop to check displays and talk to me but it was a hard sell as I preferred TomTom! Saying that, I have sold 100's of Garmin products to people which worked well and at the time (over 10 years ago) were better for lorry and large vehicle drivers. Good to hear they are still going strong.

If you take road trips you need a dedicated GPS. I was driving across America and I was in Kansas, I had no cell service. My smartphone GPS was useless. Thank God I had my Garmin GPS.

"we have great technology" ... Uses potato as Webcam for interview

I like Garmin products. I"m on my second in-car GPS and I like the free lifetime map upgrade feature. I use Google maps on a regular basis but my cell phone can overheat on long road trips in the summer. Google maps tends to get updated a bit sooner in newer areas, so it's nice to be able to use it, as well as my Garmin. I also have a Garmin Vivoactive 3 smartwatch, and its GPS locks on to satellites really quickly and is handy for walking and cycling.

I use my Garmin in the car even though I have an iPhone, and navigation in the vehicle. The Garmin shows interchange exits, lanes and a MUCH BETTER view of what I want and need to know while driving.

I have a Garmin watch and got it for a few different reasons; I can wear it while running and not worry about dropping my watch, since it is on my wrist, unlike a phone. I can bring my watch where I might not be able to bring my phone, and I can also use the watch without using my phone.

If they update their fitbit competitor product, I'll buy it. Please do so. Also please stop getting hacked.

Min Kao didn’t have the insight of the coming onslaught of smartphones and software. Good thing they were able to innovate and still stay alive today.

Oh yeah, and the customer service is great too!

incredible video!

Anyone else had the urge to buy a Garmin watch halfway through the vid?

*laughs in Tesla screen*

Wearing a Garmin Fenix 6 now. I’m looking forward to their next wave of products.

I miss my Garmin. It flew out of the window during a pretty bad car accident lol. 10 years later my GPS on my phone is defective and very inaccurate and I miss having a good device that was strictly for GPS.

We had a Garmin very early on. Misled me all over the Kissimee area of Florida. My friends carried one when they traveled. The best thing we ever did was turn the danged thing off and ask for instructions. It was a piece of garbage. Never wanted to see one again. Oh yes - my friends' Garmin told them to "turn around now" right in the middle of a major highway.

Dedicated GPS like Garmin does not need the internet. Phones, however, is only as good as its phone signals, which is rare when you’re driving into less populated areas.

A big fan of Garmin.. I think the challenge for the company is the OS on their devices. I hope they have a strategy for that to stay in the market and keep it updated with the competition

Good work

1- my Garmin uses less power on 2 AA battery with no backlight on and can last for more than a day. 2- better GPS reception in questionable places like the base of a mountain. 3- takes very little space in my bag or attach outside of bag. 4- file size of maps are smaller.

I've owned many Garmin products over the years. The last one was about 4 years ago and I'll never buy one again. They're slow, big, bad battery life, UI is clunky, maps were garbage, overpriced updates to maps...frankly no reason to ever buy one for the consumer market.

Garmin has some of the most sought after and high quality avionics packages in General Aviation. They are doing fine.

Garmin has developed some of the best glass cockpits for aircraft I have ever used.

Garmin is 'dead' for an average Joe user, but it is well alive for professional users like pilots and shippers.

A lot of people still own a garmin gps unit in spite of having a smartphone.

One of the main problem with car dashboard GPS systems from Garmin here in Australia is their expensive map updates. Google maps and other paid maps for offline use such as Sygic for smart phones are way cheaper. not to mention smart phones have much faster processor.

I'm using garmin for 5 years, which helped to show the speed cams and red light cams, because of the alerts before the cams I didn't pay any fines in Australia,