Gary Burrell, Garmin co-founder, has died | Hacker News Reader

Gary Burrell, Garmin co-founder, has died

nytimes.com

66 pointstysone22 comments

Garmin is the perfect example of a company that could have been displaced by the advent of smartphones with built in GPS receivers (which probably cannibalized the market for dedicated GPS devices in cars) but has remained relevant due to how they've explored other form factors.

My Garmin FR235 is an indispensable part of my running gear, and no mobile phone has come even close to replicating it.

More than just form factor, Garmin has done an incredible job of using GPS technology to make products for enthusiasts, rather than the masses. Cycling computers, running watches, golf range finders, marine, aviation, hunting, etc. If you're a nerd for any of those activities there's a good chance you use a Garmin, not an Apple or Android.

I've bought more Garmins than Smartphones. I think I've purchased:

3x Edge 305, Edge 500, 2x Edge 810, Edge 820.

Garmin has the advantage that their products are much more likely to get lost or smashed. So they get to sell a lot of replacements.

The customer service is also excellent; my son has a Vívofit Jr, and when the screen went haywire they replaced it—no questions asked. Quite happy with my experiences with Garmin over the years.

They even have a comprehensive line of dog tracking products, best in (surprisingly underrepresented) class. It is sad they've decided to augment them with electric shock correction features, which modern k9 science strongly discourages (acceptable only for e.g. correction of severe aggression cases, and such dogs shouldn't be roaming free with a GPS tracker anyway).

> My Garmin FR235 is an indispensable part of my running gear, and no mobile phone has come even close to replicating it.

I like a standalone self-contained GPS over a smartphone-based GPS because of (a) no dependence on a cell network (in theory, a smartphone GPS shouldn't been dependent either, but they often give problems if you don't have an active connection), (b) durability/ruggedness, (c) water resistance, (d) swappable batteries, and (e) privacy (no phoning home, movements not sent to the cloud, and untrackable, although unfortunately all of these are becoming less true with newer model Garmins).

But the biggest problem with all standalone self-contained GPS units (not talking about car units) is the horrible screen resolution. Neither Garmin nor any other handheld GPS maker makes a model with anything approaching even the cheapest smartphone. They have screen resolutions like 240 x 400, and often worse, which makes using maps a terrible experience compared to a smartphone.

There's an unfilled market for a handheld GPS with a decent display.

The transflective (direct sunlight readable) screens seem to be resolution limited. It’s an issue with industrial laptops too.

For me it's the Garmin FR 35: the bottom of their line, about $120 (https://express.google.com/u/0/product/96286016075720890_547...), it does just one thing — perfect for my running needs.

It’s a shame they don’t seem to want to compete with the Spot Trace. The GTU 10 is the only tracker I can find, and it was discontinued.

Pretty much everything else they offer I’m satisfied with my existing phone and watch solutions.

I believe Spot is owned by Globalstar (the satellite network). Garmin would have to establish their own network to truly compete.

My old Garmin car GPS still works, and thanks to people using OpenStreetMap data I still get third-party maps that are up-to-date way beyond the expected lifetime of the device.

I don't use it often, but it's nice knowing I have a fallback in case my smartphone dies, etc.

He was 51 when he started Garmin. Never too late !

Even older actually, 52. (He was born Aug. 1937 and Garmin was founded Oct. 1989.)

> In 1989, they pooled their savings and persuaded Dr. Kao’s Taiwanese relatives to invest seed money. With $4 million...

That's $8.4 million in 2019 dollars. It takes a lot of money to start a hardware company, especially something as complex as a GPS. I'm wondering if Garmin would exist if he didn't have the personal savings and access to family money. One advantage of being older is having more money (usually).

It was pretty standard that you used savings and/or relatives' money to do startups in the past. I think that a 20-year-old being about to raise cash from arms-length investors (like VCs) is a recent phenomenon -- only in the last couple decades. Jobs and Wozniak built the Apple I with personal cash, and got Mike Markkula's loan for $250,000 (in 1976) or $1.1 million in 2019 dollars only after getting a large order.

It's probably a good advantage but not as good as all the experience he undoubtedly built up in those years. What about those decades of observing what's worked and not worked? Decades of practice implementing other people's things while watching out for That One Right Thing?

Ray Kroc and Mr. Burrell are great examples of why you should never give up!

Startup founders, especially for high-performing companies, are older than one may think.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409

(Unfortunately the original HBR article is now behind a paywall.)

And what does this mean for youngsters in the game?

It’s rumored that he asked his (now Honeywell) management at the time for project funding, who’s reply was “There is no future in consumer GPS”.

I've heard this too and I'm glad they didn't fund his project. Garmin is a much better company than Honeywell!

Yep. I worked with several colleagues who went to Garmin and love it there. I’m still at Honeywell.

> which can widely cover areas that Wi-Fi can’t reach.

but my smartphone doesn't need WiFi for GPS, works on mobile data.

They sell satellite messengers.

GPS should work without any data connection.

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