December 28, 2006

New Garmin GPS Units at CES 2007

The CES show in January has been a great opportunity for manufacturers to introduce to buyers their newest and greatest products that are going on sale in the coming months, just before the hopping summer vacation and driving season. For GPS manufacturers, like Garmin, this is the biggest sales opportunity other than the holiday buying season. CES isn’t the only opportunity for manufacturers to introduce items before the summer driving season, as March will bring around a similar show in Europe, CeBIT.

We know that Garmin will be introducing the new Garmin Nuvi 670/680 at the show, as they have already been mentioned as an award recipient for the new MSN direct/SPOT capabilities for the unit. But, what else will Garmin introduce?

UPDATE: I have posted my Review of the Nuvi 680

In looking back at the Garmin announcements last year, Garmin announced an innovation in two key consumer verticals: Automotive, and Fitness/Outdoors. Those announcements included the Nuvi Savers Guides (Geo-referenced electronic coupon books), and the Forerunner 205/305 product line as well as the upgrade to the handheld line with the “X” products. Garmin also introduced a Bluetooth module and a “Black Box” module to be the GPS component available to vehicle manufacturers. They saved the major automotive announcements, namely the Nuvi 360 announcement and the StreetPilot C-500 product announcements, for later in the Spring. (Recall the Nuvi 660 announcement came in late Summer.)

So while we know about the Nuvi 670/680 announcement, we should be expecting another innovation in the Outdoor/Fitness line-up. Bushnell has announced their ability to overlay weather and satellite images onto handheld units, and this is well within the capabilities of Garmin since they already do this on their marine units. This would be a prime area for Garmin to delve into. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see an innovation in the Forerunner/Edge area, as this has been fairly successful for them and they would want to continue to own the fitness segment.

I expect major automotive GPS announcements out of Garmin for 2007. We may not see it at CES, and instead we may see it at CeBIT, but expect at least a handful of new GPS units coming out of the Garmin shop. With the price declines of the Nuvi 350 recently, they may not have the need to introduce a value line of products, but I would still like to see Garmin compete in the $300 range with a SiRF star III product. As I talked in my CES/2007 predictions post, I would also expect that we will see more flat and less bulky GPS introductions.

If you have thoughts on where Garmin is going, comment away below; we’d like to hear them.