Garmin Leads GPS Products in Consumer Discussion and Sentiment

TORONTO--(Marketwire - November 14, 2007) - As the holiday season kicks off, a new report from BrandIntel, a leader in market intelligence solutions, finds that Garmin is the most discussed GPS navigation system with 42 percent discussion share. While Garmin holds the best overall sentiment score, the report found that products from TomTom, Magellan, Mio and Lowrance also have strong sentiment scores, making this a highly competitive market.

According to a national survey done by Solution Research Group, GPS systems rank in the top five for digital products on consumers' holiday wish lists. The new BrandIntel GPS Navigation Systems Report analyzes discussion and sentiment around GPS systems in online consumer communities such as blogs, discussion forums and other social media sites on the Internet. Marketers can use the report to better understand consumer perspectives and attitudes towards the leading GPS products, features and functionality.

"The Internet has become a key destination for consumers to research potential product purchases," said Alan Dean, VP of business innovation at BrandIntel. "More and more consumers are voicing their opinions online and ultimately influencing purchasing decisions. While the GPS market is highly competitive, Garmin is the dominant brand with a high discussion share and sentiment score leading in four of the five areas tracked -- appeal, functionality, features and ease of use."

Based on analysis of consumer-created content, the GPS Navigation Systems Report captures data from July 2006 to early August 2007. Additional key findings from the study include:

--  Garmin holds the best overall sentiment score at 3.9 but its major
    competitors TomTom, Magellan, Mio and Lowrance only trail slightly at 3.5,
    3.7, 3.6 and 3.6, respectively.
--  While price appears to be a potential weakness for Garmin, consumer
    discussion focused less on pricing and more on product functionality,
    aesthetics and ease of use.
--  Key features for GPS products included Bluetooth technology, MP3
    compatibility, map software and mobile phone connectivity.
--  Mio and Lowrance lead in screen display sentiment with excellent
    screen functionality.
    

For this report, BrandIntel tracked more than six million raw search results on the Internet but refined those results through technological filters and human analysis to utilize only the highest quality data -- totaling more than 7,000 consumer mentions on GPS products. The company scans the entire scope of the Internet and analyzes the most pertinent content to measure for assigned sentiment scores and share of discussion, rating the physical and emotional value of the results (positive or negative) to produce relevant categorization records of information in all its reports. As a result, BrandIntel customers are provided with the most reliable data possible to leverage in the decision-making process regarding their brands.

To view a summary of the report, visit www.brandintel.com

About BrandIntel (www.brandintel.com) BrandIntel, a Brandimensions Inc. company, translates consumer-created content into reliable intelligence, enabling businesses to advance the science of decision making. The company offers an information-delivery platform combining human intelligence with award-winning technology for the most trusted market data in the industry. The BrandIntel data helps businesses validate critical business decisions, uncover new opportunities for value creation, and get closer to customers. BrandIntel works with Fortune 1000 companies and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices in the United States.

Contact Information: CONTACTS: Alicia Libucha Lois Paul & Partners 781-782-5703 alicia_libucha@lpp.com Maxine Friedman BrandIntel 646-202-9387 mfriedman@brandintel.com