Garmin no. 1 for GPS, study finds

When you think of the word “GPS,” which brand name jumps out of your head first? According to a recent study by market research firm BrandIntel, Garmin is the most popular portable navigation system company.

When you think of the word "GPS," which brand name jumps out of your head first? According to a recent study by market research firm BrandIntel, Garmin is the most popular portable navigation system company.

But when it comes to "consumer sentiment" scores, however, Garmin shouldn’t get too comfortable as Magellan, Mio and TomTom are nipping at its heels, according to the study.

Measured by "online consumer community" impressions, such as blogs, forums and articles – between July 2006 to August 2007 – Garmin garnered 42 percent of the 7,000 consumer mentions, followed by TomTom in a distant second at 15 percent. Magellan was close at 13 percent and Mio at 10 percent. The remaining 17 percent went to other GPS navigation unit vendors.

In consumer sentiment, though, a formula that calculates positive and negative responses, while Garmin took top honours with a score of 3.9, Magellan, Mio and TomTom were all close with scores of 3.7, 3.6 and 3.5, respectively.

Filed Under: Portable Devices