Garmin announces the nuvifone

That's right folks -- Garmin has just announced its new iPhone-like smartphone, the nüvifone. The device features full browsing, PIM, phone and of course, GPS functions. It's an HSDPA, quad-band phone, also equipped with WiFi, Bluetooth and a somewhat familiar ultrathin design with full touchscreen support. The unit will use Garmin's proprietary OS which is based on the UI its GPS units utilize, and sports a 3.5-inch LCD display... not unlike certain PNDs you know and love. There's no word on price or release date, though the company swears we're going to be hearing about it soon.

[Dan @ Jan 30th 2008 7:25PM]

WTF, thats outta left field...

[Tinu @ Jan 30th 2008 7:42PM]

I wonder if Apple will sue because Nuviphone has the word "iPhone" inside it :-P. j/k.

[McYoda @ Jan 30th 2008 7:26PM]

Goooood Byeeeee Iphone... Helllloooooo Nuviphoe

[Ireland @ Jan 30th 2008 8:44PM]

HSDPA & GPS nice!

I bet the user interface stinks of tasteless, committee-design though. It's nice to see some competition for the iPhone space, but I think I'll hold onto mine for now. It's also worth noting that HSDPA doesn't necessarily mean the browsing will be way faster (or even faster at all) than the iPhone's. We've all seen those other comparison videos, they are an eye opener, a lot more things go into stopping web browsing from sucking than just the radio chip.

[Richard @ Jan 30th 2008 7:29PM]

Damn straight. Hope it's got multitouch. Wonder how it's gonna compete w/ iphone/itunes considering they have absolutely no base in music whatsoever. Maybe for the more business oriented consumer?

[Richard @ Jan 30th 2008 7:31PM]

* damn straight being directed towards Dan's "WTF, thats outta left field..."

[steve @ Jan 30th 2008 7:31PM]

Does "full browsing" mean it supports flash?

[JackTwist @ Jan 30th 2008 7:36PM]

This is nice news. Hopefully Garmin won't leave out obvious features or then nickel and dime you to death or hold you hostage till they feel its time for you to have them on your phone.

[wickedpheonix @ Jan 30th 2008 7:36PM]

The cell phone revolution begins... (Meizu doesn't count because as of yet its essentially vaporware)

[crow610 @ Jan 31st 2008 12:45AM]

Don't tell that to the guys at meizume.com!
They'll cry like the first time you discovered there was no Santa Claus.

[Twitchy @ Jan 31st 2008 5:04AM]

"the first time you discovered santa claus"

Wait, what? You realised he didn't exist more than once?

[Jeff @ Jan 30th 2008 7:37PM]

Thick and ugly. I'm no iPhone fan, but I can't see how this is really a serious competitor to it. This looks more like a GPS device with a phone feature tacked onto it.

[Zak @ Jan 30th 2008 7:45PM]

Yeah. Anti Apple fanboys love to complain about how the iPhone "lacks features", but then this comes out and it's 4 times thicker than an iPhone, and it has all the features people want like GPS. Coincidence? Not bloody likely. Apple can't break the laws of physics, and neither can Garmin, apparently.

[Iain @ Jan 30th 2008 8:28PM]

Actually Zak, the complaints about the iPhone are that it lacks incredibly basic phone features that don't need extra hardware, just better software.

Go be a fanboy elsewhere.

[m4dm4n @ Jan 31st 2008 2:01AM]

I'd like to point out that the Engadget hands-on posted today clearly shows that this is the same size as the iPhone, so apparently while Apple can't break the laws of Physics Garmin can? (just counter-fanboying here)

[BrianB @ Jan 31st 2008 1:35PM]

The GUI looks like a dose of humble pie after the iPhone. You call, you browse, you GPS. Kapish?

[xSushi @ Jan 30th 2008 7:38PM]

These Cell Phone announcements feel like watching Spy vs. Spy on MadTV lately...

[Liam @ Jan 30th 2008 7:41PM]

Unexpected, hopefully a good surprise. If you're there you must've been invited... why no news buildup? :(

Oh, and so far it looks less that stellar.

[Ipaq3115 @ Jan 30th 2008 7:43PM]

Buy this over the iPhone any day

[Dave Hunwick @ Jan 30th 2008 8:29PM]

Wow do you have lots of money to toss around like that? Who sees a blurry picture of a non existent phone that happens to look pretty much exactly like and iPhone and shouts "buy that over an iPhone any day" You sir are a hater.

Hit me back in 3 years when this comes out. Till then I will keep updating my iPhone.

[Ipaq3115 @ Jan 30th 2008 11:39PM]

Did you even read the Post?

They said, "Garmin has just announced its new iPhone-like smartphone" they were implying, as any typical apple fanboy would, that this is some lame copy of the iPhone, but as I said, I would rather spend my money on this than a locked down iPhone. And no, I don't have a lot of money to throw around that is why I wouldn't buy a iPhone, that's to expensive and can't even send a mms...

Besides, it seems like everybody as an iPhone... I'd rather have something WAAAAYY better like an M700.

[rusty771 @ Jan 30th 2008 7:43PM]

DING
daddy daddy!
what son?
i heard overtime a bell rings an iphone rip off is created!
hmm that must be true because heres the nuvi phone!

[aaron @ Jan 30th 2008 7:52PM]

What are you trying to say??? I'm sorry, I don't understand jibberish.

[fred @ Jan 30th 2008 7:59PM]

"DING
daddy daddy!
what son?
i heard overtime a bell rings an iphone rip off is created!"

No, son, that bell is when someone rips of the LG Prada. Now get the hell out the way, you're blocking the TV!

[rusty771 @ Jan 30th 2008 8:47PM]

sorry i meant to say every time

[Alex @ Jan 30th 2008 7:45PM]

Looks nice. Can i get it without the phone?

[Itchy Pajamas @ Jan 30th 2008 7:49PM]

Kim Arnold?!

Is this a prank by Arnold Kim at http://www.macrumors.com?

[Moburkhardt @ Jan 30th 2008 8:43PM]

where does it say kim arnold?

[w00t @ Jan 30th 2008 10:57PM]

Uh, on the screen?

[trumpton @ Jan 30th 2008 8:33PM]

Why are you describing it as an "iPhone-like" smartphone please?

It looks *nothing* like an iPhone apart from the fact that it has, err, a big screen with few buttons: just like, say, the Sony Clie TH55 of four years ago.

And inside it has a ton of functionality that the iPhone lacks, so why do you have to keep on and on and on bringing up bloody Apple products in totally unrelated articles?

It's fanboydon gone feral, I tell you!

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jan 30th 2008 8:41PM]

You know, I was about to say the same thing, until I saw your post. What gets me is that this design looks almost as unlike the iPhone as you possibly could make a device like that look. Of course, I guess I am forgetting that everything with a screen is now an iPhone clone, just like everything you can plug headphones into was an iPod clone before the iPhone came out.

[Drew @ Jan 30th 2008 10:00PM]

Ok look. The reason they compare it to the iPhone is because when it comes out, chances are it's going to be compared against the iPhone by every consumer out there.



The same way every all in one computer is in some way, shape or form compared to the iMac. Yeah, the iMac may not be the best all in one, or the first, but it is the most well known and most often compared to. Same with the iPod. That's just life. Realize it and move on.

[Litenin743 @ Jan 30th 2008 8:37PM]

These touch-screen phones are getting tiresome.
I'm not going to call this a copy of the iphone, but do you think it would even exist if it wasn't for the iphone? That goes for many other touch screen phones as well.

[trumpton @ Jan 30th 2008 8:39PM]

The Prada came out before the iPhone, so I'm not sure why you're crediting Apple with this design.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jan 30th 2008 8:50PM]

Yeah, you know I was just looking at my old Handspring Visor with phone module, and thinking, that if they had a time machine that let them steal the design of a touchscreen phone from Apple, 7 years before the iPhone came out, why didn't they use the time machine for bigger things?

This is really starting to remind me of all the people who called the Creative Nomad a cheap iPod knockoff.

[vcx @ Jan 30th 2008 9:00PM]

Will it blend?
Will it play doom?

there now we have that out of the way!!

[Litenin743 @ Jan 30th 2008 9:02PM]

I'm not crediting anyone with this design. I'm just saying because of apple's success with the iphone, all companies are scrambling to make touchscreen phones as soon as possible. It's no coincidence that there was an influx of new touchscreen phones after the iphone came out.
But i guess touch screen phones are just the new flip phones.

[Iain @ Jan 30th 2008 10:06PM]

So the fact that they've been designing Sat-Nav systems that look kind of like that for years means nothing?

Of course the iPhone has had a hand in the development of this - were it not for the iPhone, Garmin would probably never have thought to have produced a GPS-phone. But, that aside, I think you're wrong, I don't think the iPhone's design has anything to do with the design of this, not in any way, be it specific or more generalised.

[potato @ Jan 30th 2008 9:19PM]

I love the concept - 3G and GPS? Hell yes.

But man, could they have made an UGLIER phone? Here's hoping they scrap the entire outer casing before this sucker makes it out the door.

[Leon @ Jan 30th 2008 11:17PM]

As an iPhone owner this is great news. Gotta love that invisible hand of competition.

[Reid @ Jan 30th 2008 11:31PM]

I loved my Nuvi 350 when I got it.

In fact, I still really like it.

But the problem is, I have an iPhone now. While the Nuvi does GPS+SatNav far better than any phone I've ever seen (including the iPhone, obviously), the iPhone has just made the Nuvi interface and touchscreen feel about 20 years behind the times. When I first got it, it wasn't high tech or low tech, it just was. Now it feels so dated.

Hopefully this Nuviphone interface is much better.

[Geoff @ Jan 30th 2008 11:34PM]

Garmin nuviphone? Wha ... ?

[Tim @ Jan 31st 2008 12:29AM]

Dang, now I just need to find someone who wants to buy my iPhone.

[realworldweirdo @ Jan 31st 2008 2:07AM]

I'm sticking with my first-gen rule here. I refuse to trust a product that the company doesn't work with for at least three generations. For example... I'm not paying any amount for a Garmin phone, or an Apple phone. Not for three more products in the same mold, anyway. I'm a Samsung boy at heart, perhaps a bit of HTC. But give Garmin some time and see how this thing works out. I, personally, want to see HP enter the wireless world in a serious way (I'm aware of their current not-noticable position).

By the way, can't blame it for being ugly. Even their GPS units are hideous.

[George @ Jan 31st 2008 4:33AM]

I phone is still much much better....just wait till they come out with the Tomtom i phone application. Then you'll have Tomtom go 720 features on your i phone. This Garmin is fat and bulky. No comparison to the i phone.

[Pimms @ Jan 31st 2008 4:57AM]

"were it not for the iPhone, Garmin would probably never have thought to have produced a GPS-phone"

Um.......see this release from 2001!!


http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases/index.php?duty=Show&id=2866&trv=1

[Jared Lorz @ Jan 31st 2008 6:23AM]

Hmm an interesting point but I'm not sure if I agree with you.

Jared Lorz

[Justin Dennis @ Jan 31st 2008 9:40AM]

I will keep my iphone that syncs its contacts and calendar seamlessly with my mac... Im sure its a nice phone, but I have some sense of direction so a GPS isnt a big deal, I rather have 8 gigs of music and photos, movies and tv shows with me instead of my phone tracking me everywhere I am... psh...

[Gadget-T @ Jan 31st 2008 12:44PM]

i think this is really good. it will keep all the othe phone companies on their toes

[Gordon @ Jan 31st 2008 2:09PM]

Lots of screenshots are available at http://www8.garmin.com/buzz/nuvifone/media_gallery.jsp