Fool Blog: Is Garmin Lost?

• On June 30, 2008, at 4:14 PM, Buckaneer wrote: Report this Comment

  I bought a position, and it showed strength, then suddenly it just sells off. And Whad'ya know, you had just written this stupid article. Thanks a lot. Not.

• On June 30, 2008, at 9:19 PM, esuresh12 wrote: Report this Comment

  My feeling is that you are just going with the market. I dont think there is any research at all you have done to prove your point. Eg: Garmin is not a phone provider alone. They have something called GPS !!! (Did you know that?) . Did you properly analyse how much will be the market in the future for these things ? Or at minimum did you check whether the new apple iPhone has full fledged GPS capability ?

  According to my understanding currently apple offers only google maps. You have to have a data plan (which is $30) to have GPS. There is no interactive way to find directions etc. I could have agreed with you if you had some substantial back up to prove your claims

• On June 30, 2008, at 9:54 PM, russfeirstein wrote: Report this Comment

  Garmin is being squeezed by competitors left and right, and each is given it "pricing pressure". The one thing that bothers me is that Garmin offers "map updates" for $69 while other vendors give them to you free. They always seem to want to nickel and dime you to death. I bought a competitor GPS for my 2nd car, a Navigon 2100. I will have to admit, it's WAY better. Real-time views of the actual signs for interchanges and a yellow marker showing which lane to be in to effect the proper highway-to-highway move, can't be beat. And I get "Lifetime Traffic" to avoid commuter nightmares in rush-hour. Whole thing was $150 (including lifetime traffic). No subscription service, no nickels and dimes. By once, use it forever. Garmin should follow suit.

• On June 30, 2008, at 11:02 PM, lindyk915 wrote: Report this Comment

  As of this writing, Garmin makes 4 of the top 10 best sellers in the entire electronics category at Amazon, and 8 of the top 10 in the GPS category are Garmin. Even though the stock is getting pummelled, it doesn't look like sales are taking such a beating. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I wouldn't even consider throwing in the towel before the next quarterly report.

• On June 30, 2008, at 11:12 PM, millergh wrote: Report this Comment

  Yes, I think the Nuviphone will have a niche - different from the Iphone. Do you have any proof that the Iphone will have navigation software "better than the nuviphone"? Evidently it is not that easy to duplicate the utility of Garmin's Nuvi in a cell phone. Otherwise it would have been done long ago. I have a Garmin GPSmap 496 which has airplane navigation utility as well as weather and on the road utility. It comes with an attachment with a speaker to plug into the car's cigarette lighter and gives verbal turn-by turn guidance without viewing the screen. I envision the Nuviphone to have such an attachment. However the stock pps probably won't do much until the 4th quarter when the sales figures start coming in for the Nuviphone. I expect a big rise after the 4th quarter earnings report in Feb. '09.

• On June 30, 2008, at 11:40 PM, gembuyer wrote: Report this Comment

  I have owned GRMN and many Garmin units for over 4 years. I have seen superb management demonstrated. The same management is in control.

  Do you not believe that the Garmin team can not produce another superior product in a competetive market? If so sell.

  I'm increasing my position. Management means everything!!!

  Buy good proven management with product that is superior. Over time it is a winner, day to day who knows or cares!

• On July 01, 2008, at 3:31 AM, HugoBelg wrote: Report this Comment

  First, it's nüvifone not nuviphone.

  The nüvifone is targeted at a different market, it comes OUT OF THE BOX with turn by turn navigation and a car mount, both of which you have to ADD (purchase) to the iPhone (Google maps does not give you spoken turn by turn navigation!).

  The commenter who moans about map updates, please do some research, every GPS company SELLS map updates, some more expensive than Garmin others cheaper but they're all around $60 for a yearly update, if you know of a GPS that gives free map updates please enlighten us.

  As for Garmin it's a top notch company, the stock is not reflecting this at the moment but imho they will rise above this eventually, I made plenty of money of them already and am letting the stock I still have ride for the long run.

• On July 01, 2008, at 3:38 AM, TakeAimPort wrote: Report this Comment

  20% of Garmin's bus is glass panel nav systems for the world's most advanced, sophisticated planes, jet & prop, and it's reported to be boom time for new planes going forward. It's the state of the art leader in this field and it makes all its other products for cars, boats, motorcycles, dog collars, bikes, runners, outdoorsman, joggers and the like child's play by comparison. It's even got a new thing called Synthetic Vision Technology which displays a 3D terrain graphic for IFR flight---star war's stuff. The iPhone is great...but how much does the monthly svc plan cost? Similiarly, it's not the cost of the computer that gets you, it's the monthly high speed access charge! The nuvi phone can compete if its svc charge is a lot less than the iPhone. A lot of people don't need all that jazz that the iPhone provides and will find the delivery of GPS nav to everyday affairs a huge time saver and headache reducer. These stock analysts can follow the stock but not the story. They can't see the forest for the trees. All their questions are about exchange rates, inventory build up, etc. They need to get out of the office and onto the street and learn about how people live. As my grandma used to say, "A word to the wise is sufficient."

• On July 01, 2008, at 8:01 AM, traderjim007 wrote: Report this Comment

  I traded GRMN all the way from the low $40's to $125. Made a ton of money and thought I was pretty smart. Then the stock dropped, first due to Tom Tom and then other competitive pressures. I bought a new position in the $106 range, thought the drop was done! Rode it all the way to $65 and bought more. Now, here I am with a whopper of a paper loss. I attended the annual meeting about 7-8 questions were asked, I was the only one that asked about the Nuvifone. I didn't consider the answer very strong, but I am not going to take the $ loss either. Has GRMN lost it's way? I have serious doubts about the Nuvifone helping the stock to any significant degree, I hope I am wrong. There navigation systems is the best and it will be a cool device (fone), but I don't think it's going to save the stock.

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