A Focused, ‘Win-Win’ Approach Between Two Tech Companies Has Yielded Higher Quality Solutions and Competitive Advantage for Two Decades
HERE Technologies, a global leader in location platform services, today celebrated its 20-year anniversary with Garmin. What began as a regional business collaboration has grown into a global co-creation relationship that has delivered several market firsts which are now the industry standard in the automotive navigation sector.
“Our first engagement which was to help Garmin expand its mapping content, has since grown into an incredibly effective global relationship where both organizations have been able to deliver valuable solutions to our customers and maintain our competitive advantages,” said Edzard Overbeek, Chief Executive Officer of HERE Technologies. “It is gratifying to see that this longstanding collaboration has been the engine behind achieving our mutual goal to improve the daily lives of consumers by providing accurate, reliable digital maps and navigation tools.”
HERE and Garmin have worked closely together to develop the personal navigation device market which represented a significant growth catalyst for both companies. Later the two companies went on to capitalize on opportunities in the automotive OEM market.
Through the years, both companies have collaborated to bring several industry first to market including:
- Map Updates: Providing PND customers with ongoing access to map updates is standard today, but 10 years ago it was an innovative differentiator for Garmin as it worked with HERE to establish market leadership.
- Natural Guidance: Introduced by HERE in 2010, Natural Guidance offered Garmin PND customers a more personalized navigation experience by identifying familiar landmarks, buildings and traffic lights. Natural Guidance’s landmark-based referencing has since become an industry standard, leading to higher consumer satisfaction in the automotive navigation market.
- Real-time Traffic and POI Search: Garmin also utilizes HERE Location Services (HLS) to provide live traffic and Points of Interest (POI) search capabilities in many of its products, offering drivers the best real-time information for finding the most direct routes that will avoid wasting time in traffic jams or searching for accurate POIs.
“Many things have changed in the world around us since Garmin and HERE first started working together,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin CEO and President. “One thing that has never changed is our mutual commitment to long term success and delivering the best possible value proposition to our customers.”
Both companies share similar values as well, such as actively supporting charitable organizations in communities where we live, work and serve. To celebrate this 20-year milestone, Garmin and HERE are each donating $20,000 to the United Way of Greater Kansas City during Garmin’s annual fundraising campaign which kicked off on October 15th. The funds will be targeted for STEM outreach, an effort championed by both companies, to support programs in schools and communities to provide education and career exploration in science, technology, engineering and math.
About HERE Technologies:
HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com.
About Garmin International Inc.:
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 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.
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Media Contacts
Kate Elisco, 312-480-6780, Kate.elisco@here.com
Krista Klaus, 913-440-1422, Krista.klaus@garmin.com