Garmin currently owns a 57% share in US consumer and corporate markets, according to a study done by research firm ChangeWave. Conducted in February, the survey questioned 3773 consumer and 2013 corporate members of its ChangeWave Alliance.
Garmin currently commands a 56% share of the American consumer market, with Magellan (12%), TomTom (9%), Trimble Navigation (3%) and Lowrance (3%) rounding out the top 5 manufacturers by market share in the US.
In the corporate sphere, Garmin currently commands a 58% market share, a whopping 11 percentage point increase since November 2007. The same four manufacturers rounding out the consumer market also rank identically in the corporate market as well, albeit with slightly different percentages.
Despite Garmin’s domination of the US market, their stock price has been devastated in recent months and even after the company’s February 20th quarterly earnings call revealing “the best quarter in our history”, their stock dropped another 20%. According to ChangeWave, the reason is twofold. First, the prices we pay for Garmin GPS units are dropping big time. That’s a good thing. The second reason is that American consumer spending has taken a big hit recently with recession fears. Smaller profit margins on less sales for Garmin. But, if you want to know what the best GPS navigation device is, then look no further than Garmin. The US consumer electronics market has spoken and with prices dropping faster than ever, recession or not, Garmin seems to be the way to go.
Via ChangeWave
