[normie3000]

Wasn’t Garmin already an established company with other GPS-based product lines before they got into car satnav?

[colechristensen]

Garmin makes commercial, aviation, defense, etc. kinds of GPS systems and was producing systems.

This was their first product, http://retro-gps.info/Garmin/Pronav-GPS-100/index.html and their first customer was the US Army. It replaced Army GPS systems which weighed nearly 40 pounds.

[nixass]

Correct, they are also in avionics business which gives them nice revenue too.

[afterburner]

Ah, the secret to "success" in all things: already having piles of money.