DeLorme

DeLorme

Founded	1976
Founder	David DeLorme
Headquarters	Yarmouth, Maine, United States

DeLorme Headquarters
in Yarmouth, Maine

DeLorme is a producer of personal satellite tracking, messaging, and navigation technology. The company’s main product, inReach, is known for its integration of GPS and satellite technologies. inReach provides the ability to send and receive text messages anywhere in the world including when beyond cell phone range (90% of the world's surface) by using the Iridium satellite constellation. By pairing with a smart phone, navigation is possible with access to free downloadable topographic maps and NOAA charts.

DeLorme also produces printed atlas and topographic software products. DeLorme combines digital technologies with human editors to individually verify travel information and map details to ensure accuracy. A DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer is a complement to a vehicle’s GPS or online mapping site, because it allows a traveler to browse and highlight the anticipated route and the possible activities or excursions along the way or at the destination. Paper atlases continue to be a strong seller for DeLorme, with more than 20 million copies sold to date to travelers, recreational enthusiasts, and map lovers. DeLorme’s Topo software is one of the sources of North American trail, logging road and terrain data for outdoor enthusiasts. Topo 10 has US and Canada topographic maps and elevation data with more than four million places of interest in US and Canada. In addition to comprehensive park data, Topo includes high-detail lake, river and stream data for all 50 states.

Founded in 1976, DeLorme is headquartered in Yarmouth, Maine, and is home to Eartha, the world's largest revolving globe.

History

The company was founded in 1976 by David DeLorme, who, being frustrated over obsolete back-country maps of the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, vowed to create a better map of Maine.

DeLorme combined state highway, county, and town maps as well as federal surveys to produce the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer which was printed in a large-format book with an initial printing of 10,000, which he marketed out of his car. The Gazetteer, which listed bicycle trails, canoeing and kayaking trips, and museum and historic sites, proved quite successful.

The company expanded to 75 employees in 1986, working from a Quonset hut in Freeport, Maine, producing maps for New England and upstate New York.

In 1987, the company produced a CD with detailed topographic map data of the entire world.

Early successes resulted in contracts with government and private businesses.

In 1991, DeLorme began vending Street Atlas USA on a single CD-ROM, becoming the most popular street-map CD in the United States, as well as one of the first mass consumer CD-ROM software products of any kind.

By 1995, DeLorme had 44 percent of the market share for CD maps. The same year the company partnered with the American Automobile Association (AAA) to produce the AAA Map 'n Go, the first mapping product to generate automatic routing. They also introduced the DeLorme GPS receiver to work with its maps.

In 1996, it introduced its maps into the PDA environment via Palm.

In 1997, the company relocated to a new corporate campus in Yarmouth, Maine, that features a giant model of the world, named Eartha, the largest rotating globe in the world. The company has provided complimentary geographic educational sessions for thousands of school children over the years and the public is welcome to visit and see Eartha from the three-story balconies.

In 1999, DeLorme introduced 3D TopoQuad DVD and CD products, which include digitized U.S. topographic maps.

In 2001, XMap professional GIS map program was produced on CD, and an expanded XMap was released in 2002, modified to provide GPS functionality to Palm OS and Pocket PC.

In 2005, DeLorme became the first company to sell a USB GPS device, the Earthmate GPS LT-20. At the same time, it began offering downloadable satellite and USGS 7.5-minute quads that could be overlaid on its maps using an innovative new NetLink feature. Earlier models of Earthmate were among the first GPS receivers tethered to laptops. DeLorme now sells GPS receivers from USGlobalSat, a subsidiary of GlobalSat WorldCom.

In 2006/2007, the firm introduced its first full-featured GPS standalone receiver, the Earthmate GPS PN-20. During 2008, the company continued expanding its handheld GPS line with the Earthmate GPS PN-40 model. DeLorme also began selling OEM GPS modules allowing other manufacturers to add GPS to their products. In addition, the company began selling data to businesses which desired alternative suppliers.

In 2009, it introduced the E-Z Nav Wizard, a feature that makes Street Atlas 2010 interface intuitive to first-time users, easy to use on small laptop computers (netbooks, UMPCs), and touch-screen friendly.

In early 2010, DeLorme announced a partnership with Spot Inc. This partnership will include the ability to send text messages almost anywhere in the world using the Globalstar simplex network.

See also

• Maps of the United States
• Geospatial
• Trail maps

External links

• DeLorme website
• DeLorme Street Atlas 2008 review - a review by Laptop GPS World
• inReach website
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