Garmin expects to end '08 with a lot of GPS's shipped Update: Garmin isn't happy

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Garmin is expecting ’08 to be a banner year despite the piss-poor economy. When all the beans are counted and the ducks are lined up, the largest GPS manufacturer expects to haveshipped 50% more GPS units this year verse in previous years.

If Garmin does hit that 50% more figure, that would result in the firm shipping out over 18 million GPS devices. This is despite that fact that other GPS makers are throwing in the towel and people are losing their homes. Apparently, none of that matters for Garmin. The company had a great Black Friday weekend and expects the trend to continue through the end of the holiday spending blitz. Maybe the extra revenue from these high sales will guarantee  that the Android-powered Garmin smartphone will launch on time and actually mainstream ready.

Update: So yeah, Garmin isn’t too happy with Digitime for releasing that number. So much so that they have issued a press release disputing the report. While the PR doesn’t deny anything explicitly, it does cast a shadow of doubt. Who cares though. In the end, Garmin shipped a crapton of GPS’s; end of story.

Garmin Disputes DigiTimes Report

CAYMAN ISLANDS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, is disputing a Monday, December 22 report in the DigiTimes trade publication entitled, “Garmin expects to ship 18 million GPS PNDs in 2008.” The story contains a number of inaccuracies in both sales figures and product rollout schedules.

“Black Friday sales from our customers were what we expected and gross margins remain relatively strong,” said Kevin Rauckman, Garmin’s CFO and treasurer. “However, the December sales environment is weaker, which we attribute to our retail customers’ desire to exit the year with lower levels of inventory.”

As is customary, Garmin will update investors during its fourth quarter 2008 earnings call, scheduled for February 25, 2009.