Garmin Opening Facilities to serve Australia/New Zealand

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Exciting news from this morning's newswire!


CAYMAN ISLANDS, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN - News), today announced plans to open company-owned offices in Australia, to be known as Garmin Australasia Pty Ltd. The new facility will include a full warehouse, sales, marketing and customer support staff that will provide an unprecedented level of service to dealers and customers in Australia and New Zealand for Garmin's consumer products.

Over the past 17 years, Garmin's Australasian presence has been represented by GME. Both GME and Garmin are working closely together to ensure a seamless transition for both dealers and customers. The transition for Australia is expected to be completed on July 1, 2008. The transition for New Zealand is expected to be completed on January 1, 2009.

"Garmin has enjoyed a long and healthy relationship with GME," said Dan Bartel, Garmin's vice president of worldwide sales. "In the near future, Garmin representatives will begin making introductory calls to our dealers in Australia and New Zealand to share this exciting news."

"We are working closely with Garmin to ensure that this is a smooth changeover for both dealers and end users," said Alan Stehr, executive chairman of GME. "This new arrangement will allow each company to focus its efforts on growing its core business."

GME designs, manufactures, and distributes its own line of two-way radios, telemetry devices, television signal processing equipment, and marine electronics.

Garmin is presently scouting locations and hiring staff for its new offices, which will be based in the Sydney area. Garmin's aviation structure in Australasia remains unchanged at this time.

About Garmin

Through its operating subsidiaries, Garmin Ltd. designs, manufactures, markets and sells navigation, communication and information devices and applications - most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin is a leader in the consumer and general aviation GPS markets and its products serve aviation, marine, outdoor recreation, automotive, wireless 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 http://www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. Garmin is a registered trademark of Garmin Ltd.

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GeoMan - have Garmin given you any indication of when the 705 will be released? Any ideas if it will be compatible with powertap?

GeoMan - have Garmin given you any indication of when the 705 will be released? Any ideas if it will be compatible with powertap?The warehouse is still reporting 2/28/08 release date but with Garmin, you just have to wait and see... Our fingers are crossed!

We're also waiting to see about compatibility... From a marketing standpoint, it sure makes sense to link up with CycleOps product. Again, too soon to tell.