Garmin Grows in the Wearables Market with Device, Community, and Third-Party App Strategies
Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today
reported new data that demonstrates the company’s strong and growing
position in the wearables market. Garmin specializes in the design and
manufacturing of unique and useful wearables for active lifestyles.
Garmin was an early mover and pioneer in the wearables market when it
introduced the Forerunner 201 in 2003 – its first GPS enabled wearable
targeting the running market. Since then, Garmin has shipped more than
20 million wearable devices. The Garmin wearables strategy is centered
on purpose-built devices for consumers who want to measure and enhance
their active lifestyle pursuits, whether it’s running, cycling,
swimming, golfing, walking, or simply being more active.
But the strategy doesn’t end there. Nearly 11 years ago, the Garmin
Connect™ online community was formed which recognized the value in
storing, tracking, analyzing, and sharing of fitness and other data that
its customers collect. Today, Garmin Connect has over 15 million user
accounts, with 5 million new users joining in 2015 alone. Garmin Connect
enhances motivation by enabling users to compete with family and friends
who also live active lifestyles, and offers insights to individual users
to help them reach health and wellness goals and recognize
accomplishments. The Garmin Connect community is supported by a powerful
ecosystem of partners like Nike, Strava, MyFitnessPal and MapMyFitness
enabling customers to experience fully the data they collect on their
wearable within the community of their choice.
The most recent – and fastest growing – pillar of the Garmin wearables
strategy is its Connect IQ™ Application Store, which was established
less than two years ago. Since then users have downloaded over 10
million Connect IQ apps – all of which are free. In fact, Connect IQ
users on average download approximately 10 apps per device. This high
level of engagement is the result of the rich utility that third-party
apps provide such as maps, weather forecasts, custom workouts, custom
data fields, widgets, watch faces, and many more ways to make their
devices their own.
“We are experiencing strong momentum in the wearables market as a result
of an intentional focus on key strategies. We believe that wearable
devices enable and enhance a broad range of active lifestyles, and we
offer purpose-built devices designed specifically for those lifestyles,”
said Cliff Pemble, Garmin president and CEO. “To that we add a
compelling online user community where users track their fitness goals
and progress over time and motivate themselves and others to achieve
even more. Finally, we offer a rich set of third-party apps, widgets,
and watch faces that allow users to customize their device making it
both useful and fun. Garmin is a leader in the wearables market because
we offer a broad and deep range of devices, a powerful user community,
and personalization enabled through third-party apps.”
For decades, Garmin has pioneered new GPS navigation and wireless
devices and applications that are designed for people who live an active
lifestyle. Garmin serves five primary business units, including
automotive, aviation, fitness, marine, and outdoor recreation. For more
information, visit Garmin’s virtual pressroom at garmin.com/newsroom,
contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200, or follow us at facebook.com/garmin,
twitter.com/garmin,
or youtube.com/garmin.
About Garmin
Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN).
Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal
subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United
Kingdom. Garmin is a registered trademark, and Garmin Connect and
Connect IQ are trademarks 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. 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 26, 2015, filed
by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file
number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at http://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.
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