Garmin
Garmin is a company that originated in the year 1989 by four likeminded individuals who added a contribution to the consumer market that many these days do not believe they could live without: technologies for global positioning system devices and software. Originally born from the ideas of Gary Burrell who combined his love for flying with the need to have accurate and efficient instruments for communications as well as navigation, the Garmin PDA began to take intellectual shape when Burrell realized that his employers would never step up to the plate and exploit GPS technology in such as way as to be profitable.

Founding Garmin with Min Kao, a co-worker and close personal friend, the Garmin PDA GPS-reliant system was only a few short years away for inception. Of course, in the beginning Garmin manufactured the kinds of receivers that would work with GPS technology and these gadgets were quite expensive. Yet due to their usefulness and also because of the satellite technology that they supported, their devices had an immediate look and feel of space technology, and thus in spite of the steep price the items were well received, and the company founders’ original investment paid off.

Continuously improving on their designs, Garmin soon launched a series of smaller devices that could actually be handheld and as such became valuable during the 1991 Gulf War as well as for the recreation sector for runners as well as mountain bikers. Garmin finally entered the PDA market in 2003 with the Garmin iQue PDA and GPS system.

For those using PDAs, you know that Garmin is for PDAs what Windows is for the same market. As a matter of fact, the handheld Garmin iQue PDA with GPS is perfectly capable of operating not only on the Palm OS but also on the Windows Mobile operating platforms. The Garmin GPS ready iQue PDA will give you the ability to view maps and even receive routes for driving. For those who enjoy the security of being able to receive turn by turn driving directions, this little gadget will provide you not only with this peace of mind, but also with a large number of other applications that will mimic any pocket PCs capabilities. Some of the peripherals that are available for sale are external GPS antennae, external speakers, and also vehicle mounts.

At this point in time there are a few devices that were recently discontinued, such as the iQue 3600, yet support for these systems may still be obtained via telephone or over the Internet.