Garmin® Announces the AIS 600 for Vessel Tracking and Collision Avoidance

OLATHE, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, announced today the AIS 600 – the company’s first transceiver that allows boaters to receive and transmit Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, giving mariners a new way to identify and avoid other large sea vessels at long range in virtually any visibility.

“Small boaters and yachtsman alike will benefit from the safety and security the AIS 600 provides,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “With the AIS 600, mariners can rest assured knowing that they have visibility of the boat traffic around them and that they can be seen by other vessels while navigating through busy waterways.”

The AIS 600 receives both Class A and Class B signals simultaneously, ensuring that no critical information is lost. In addition, the AIS 600 features a unique built-in Active splitter with ClearTrack™ technology that eliminates the need for two VHF antennas – giving you more space and making installation easy without the need for additional hardware. The active splitter ensures that all VHF and AIS communications are sent and received with minimal signal loss or interruption, while ClearTrack ensures no interruption of the AIS traffic position transmission, even when the VHF radio is in use. Garmin is the first manufacturer to bring the unique ClearTrack technology to the AIS market.

The new black box AIS 600 transceiver is NMEA 2000 certified and can be easily integrated into the Garmin marine lineup. Once installed, the AIS 600 is controlled via the chartplotter display and provides detailed information like ship identification data, position, course and speed for vessels equipped with an AIS transmitter within range right at your fingertips. Users can make the AIS target’s position appear on their electronic chart for a variety of ranges. In addition, when integrated with a Garmin chartplotter and VHF radio via NMEA 2000, users can initiate a call to any MMSI target directly from the chartplotter by selecting the “call with radio” function. Boaters may also activate the AIS target which will draw a heading line from the target in the direction of travel, as well as graphic representation of turn direction and rate of turn.

The AIS 600 has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $1,399.99 and will be available in January 2010. For more information on this and other products in Garmin’s marine line up, visit www.garmin.com.

About Garmin International Inc.

Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications – most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin’s virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. Garmin is a registered trademark and ClearTrack is a trademark of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.

All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Notice on forward-looking statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. All statements regarding the company’s future product introductions are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 27, 2008, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of Garmin’s Form 10-K can be downloaded at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

 

Contacts

Garmin International Inc.Carly Baltes, [email protected]