Looking good. From NextInning.com:
Update On Yesterday's SiRF News 12:07 PM -- 9/1/05
We’ve learned a bit more about the SiRF (SIRF) win at Garmin (GRMN) since publishing our initial report yesterday.
GRMN will initially use the SIRF starIII chips in a new line of products known as Edge. To see these products, click here.
The first two members of the GRMN Edge family are now available. GRMN expects these products to be sold in high volumes like the company’s wrist attached GPS for runners. Please note that current models of the wrist-worn GPS receivers use chips designed by GRMN rather than SIRF chips.
According to GRMN spokesperson Ted Gartner, moving away from internally designed chips will allow GRMN to focus on new GPS markets. Gary Kelley, GRMN’s VP of Marketing, said, “SiRF’s high sensitivity architecture is well-suited for some of our soon-to-be-announced products, and will help us achieve our mission of enhancing the GPS experience.”
According to comments in my local paper, the SIRF starIII chipset is up to 2,000 times more powerful than some GPS chips on the market. This allows SIRF-equipped products to find locations more quickly and in areas where other chips can’t. These areas include those covered with heavy foliage and downtown areas that GPS engineers refer to as “urban canyons.” SIRF founder, Kanwar Chadha, said in some cases, the SIRF starIII is even capable of working indoors.
Bottom Line: We see the GRMN decision to use SIRF as further testimony to the quality of SIRF’s technology and as a clear indication that the SIRF team executes well in the market. In addition to GRMN, SIRF has ongoing business with customers such as Nextel from Motorola (MOT), Nokia (NOK) cellular phones, and the General Motors (GM) OnStar system. To read more about SIRF, please see our archive of posts.
Disclosure: At the time of publication, Paul McWilliams had long positions in SIRF, GRMN, MOT, and NOK.
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