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News ReleaseNovAtel Inc. Expands SPAN Product Family with Two New IMUs
(Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 9, 2006)— NovAtel Inc. (NASDAQ: NGPS), a precise positioning technology company, is pleased to announce the expansion of its SPAN Technology™ product line. SPAN (Synchronized Position Attitude Navigation) Technology, a tightly integrated NovAtel GPS receiver and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), now supports two new IMUs – Northrup Grumman’s LN200 and iMAR GmbH’s FSAS-EI. Customers now have a total of three IMU choices from NovAtel to address their specific export requirements, as well as their performance, cost, and durability needs. Span Technology with the new IMU options will be available at the end of Q2, 2006. SPAN Technology currently is available with the HG1700 IMU from Honeywell that is based on ring laser gyro technology and delivers gyro bias of 1 degree per hour at a competitive price. The latest IMUs – the LN200 and the FSAS-EI – feature state-of-the-art fibre optic gyro technology that offers significantly higher MTBF, with the LN200 delivering a gyro bias of 1 degree per hour and the FSAS-EI delivering a gyro bias of 0.75 degree per hour. All three IMUs work seamlessly with NovAtel’s SPAN Technology. The NovAtel technology advantage is a real-time tightly-coupled navigation solution with the capability for simultaneous raw data recording to post-process with its Waypoint Products Group’s Inertial Explorer software. This development provides SPAN Technology customers with more options to utilize time, position and attitude to meet a variety of airborne and land-based applications. According to Farlin Halsey, VP Marketing for NovAtel, “NovAtel has seen significant interest in its SPAN Technology product. With the addition of two new IMUs to the product family, we anticipate growth and increased demand in several key vertical and geographic target markets.” By complementing GPS with inertial measurements, SPAN Technology provides more robust and more accurate positioning in challenging conditions where GPS alone is limited, and offers continuous position and attitude output. The tight coupling of GPS with inertial technology provides demonstrable benefits of faster satellite re-acquisition and faster RTK re-initialization after outages. Also, the capability to post-process GPS and inertial data with Inertial Explorer software provides additional tools for the user to improve upon the accuracy and integrity of the combined solution. About NovAtelNovAtel designs, markets and sells high-precision GPS and other positioning components and sub-systems used in a wide variety of commercial applications principally in the aviation, geomatics (surveying and mapping), mining, precision agriculture, marine and defence industries. NovAtel is also the principal supplier of reference receivers to national aviation ground networks in the US, Japan, Europe, China and India. NovAtel’s solutions combine hardware, such as receivers and antennas, with software to enable its customers to fully integrate the Company’s high-precision GPS technology into their respective products and systems. NovAtel, an ISO 9001 certified company, is focused on supplying core high-precision positioning technology to OEMs and system integrators who build systems for various end market applications. For more information, visit www.novatel.com. Certain statements in this news release, including those about the Company’s future plans and intentions, future performance, market acceptance and expected shipments of its SPAN Technology, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on management’s current expectations regarding NovAtel’s future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures, competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘will’’, ‘‘potential’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘predict’’, “forecast” or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including operating results of the Company’s joint venture Point, Inc. (“Point”), impact and timing of large orders, U.S. dollar to Canadian dollar exchange rate fluctuations, establishing and maintaining effective distribution channels, timely launch of new products, certification and market acceptance of NovAtel’s new products, impact and timing of large orders, credit risks of customers and the Company’s joint venture Point, pricing pressures in the market and other competitive factors, maintaining technological leadership, timing of revenue recognition in connection with certain contracts, the ability to maintain supply of products from subcontract manufacturers, the procurement of components to build products, product defects, the impact of industry consolidations, vulnerability to general economic, market and business conditions, competition, environmental and other actions by governmental authorities, reliance on key personnel and other factors described in the Company’s Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2005 and other SEC filings, many of which are beyond the control of NovAtel. These factors should be considered carefully and undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and NovAtel assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. |
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