GPS Marketing Brands

In the present day the GPS and Navigation systems have come to be marketed under a number of popular brands on a global level. Currently five of the top selling brands are:

1) Garmin- This company was started out of Kansas in 1989 and is a provider of portable units for personal, aviation, and marine use. As well as these, Garmin also markets fitness products and wireless apps for mobile use.

2) Magellan- This company based out of California is credited with the first GPS available for public use in 1989. This is also the first GPS that responded to voice commands. It continues to sell well to this day and its devices are standard place in Hertz rental cars.

3) TomTom- This company which was founded in Amsterdam in 1991 is now a global corportation. The devices from this comapny are noted by consumer reports as having some of the easiest control options, but do have more advanced options as well. The devices also have the option of using celebrity voices on their systems.

4) Mio- This company is not as dominant as its competitors but does offer a ful lspectrum of models. Also Mio is credited with developing the first PDA with GPS capabilities back in 2003.

5) Navigon- This is a relatively new company who only recently brought out their own line of devices after working behind a number of different companies. The company is growing though as it continues to develop new features for their devices, one of which is the "reality view". This feature gives users the ability to see upcoming developments that will popup in the future.

All the new developments in the GPS industry are what have allowed multiple developers to arrive on the market. New companies have sprung up with the sole idea of GPS development in mind, as well as other electronics based companies moving into the GPS industry. Now with GPS not being solely vehicle-based, companies are developing mobile apps for devices such as the Blackberry and I-phone. The technological advances in the past decade have made GPS and navigation devices more accesible to the public, just as personal computer revolutionized the business and home places in the 80s and 90s. This is a growing industry and who knows what kind of navigation advances will be around in the years to follow.