Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4?
posted Sep 28th 2009 7:28PM
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Q. How does Garmin navigation compare to AT&T Navigator?
A. Both Garmin and AT&T Navigator provide voice prompted turn by turn navigation. One of the main differences between Garmin and AT&T Navigator is that Garmin navigation is fully integrated into email, contacts, SMS, photos and more. This means that customers can navigate to an address sent via text, email or in their address book directly from text, email, or the address book. Customers do not have to leave the application and type the address in the navigation search.
Q. How much does it cost for navigation on Garmin nuvifone G60?
A. Garmin navigation is built into the device price. Once a customer buys the device and puts a SIM into the phone, navigation will automatically work. There is no monthly charge for navigation. This is a great selling feature of the device. Once a customer's contract period is up they can continue to use Garmin navigation as long as a SIM is in the phone.
Q. What services are included with Garmin nuvifone G60 at no additional charge?
A. Customers who purchase the Garmin G60 will receive Garmin navigation with built in maps, web browsing, SMS, YPC, Ciao*, flight status and currency converter at no additional charge.
Q. What is Garmin Premium Services?
A. Garmin Premium services (GPS) is available for $5.99 a month after a 30 day free trial. GPS gives customers real time access to traffic updates, gas prices, white pages, weather, local events and movie listings. To activate GPS customers must click on one of the service icons on the device and accept the terms of service. After 30 days, customers will automatically be enrolled in GPS and will be billed $5.99 a month until they call in to cancel the service (For $5.99 a month the customer gets full access to all of the CPS on the device)
Q. Does nuvifone G60 require a special rate plan (like iPhone)?
A. nuvifone G60 can be activated on any eligible postpaid rate plan. It does not require a special rate plan like iPhone.
Q. Are there any Data plan requirements with Garmin?
A. Garmin requires a $30 data plan. The $30 data plan will give customers unlimited browsing and search. It also covers all data usage for GPS which requires real time updates every few minutes and is therefore constantly "pinging" the network and constantly using data.
Q. Can customers download applications using the G60?
A. All the applications that can be used on the Garmin G60 are resident on the device. Garmin nuvifone G60 does not support download capabilities
Q. Does nuvifone G60 support corporate email?
A. nuvifone G60 does not support corporate email. It supports mobile email clients like Hotmail, Gmail and AOL through POP3/IMAP setup
Q. What is included in the box when a customer purchases the G60?
A. nuvifone comes with all the accessories to optimize in-car use of the G60 including the device, car mount and dashboard mount. It also comes with a USB cable so that customers can easily sync their device to the PC to sync their contacts and/or get map updates from garmin.com
Q. What are some unique selling features of the G60?
A. There are many unique features to the nuvifone G60 including the following:
Where am I – with the touch of a button get the nearest intersection, hospital, police station and hwy
Where's my car - Once a device is taken off the car mount, it will automatically store the location where it was dismounted. Customers can leave with the device in hand and navigate back to the car at a later time (i.e. when shopping in the mall and wants to find the car in the parking lot)
Photo Geo-Tagging- Customers can send/receive pictures with location based information and customers can navigate directly to that location with a push of a button
Q. What is the Ciao application located on the device?
A. Ciao is a social networking application on the device. It allows customers to share location based information with friends, family and people in their social network. Ciao is an application that is included on the device for no additional charge.
Q. Is nuvifone eligible for insurance?
A. Yes! It is Tier 2, $125 deductable.
* Ciao is an application that allows others to track a customer's location. Ciao does not go through AT&T privacy controls. Customers should be informed that this application is available on the device but that it does include tracking capabilities. Registration for Ciao is handled on the device. When a customer selects the Ciao application they will be directed to www.garmin.com for registration.
cmon att, get that logo off
rubbing alcohol?
haha no I was not refering to the way you jerk off
Where is the HTC Leo ATT? This is not what the people want.
who the hell would beat off with rubbing alcohol?
anyway, i feel like first heard about this phone almost two years ago, and it didn't even seem very interesting then...
2 little 2 late!
On my Hero , (and therefore I suppose on every Android device), all these features: sat nav, find my car, where am I ,etc.etc., are available for free from the android market in many different flavours and types ,together with many voice translators, e books readers, plus many augmented reality apps working with GPS, plus a 5 mpx excellent camera/videocam, plus all the other 140+ apps (games excluded) I have downloaded on my phone an choosed to keep after trying them on its exquisite multitouch capacitive 3" screen.
I'm afraid that Garmin /Asus are due for some severe disappointment.
Microsoft Word FTW! :-)
hooray for red squigglies...
And someone is going to pay $300 for this instead of an iphone because.....-
The iPhone still doesn't have a great navigation system unless you buy that Tom Tom connector for a lot of money.
For the iPhone to match this, you'd have to buy the
iPhone ($200) + TomTom iPhone kit ($120) + TomTom iPhone app ($xxx) = AT LEAST $400 up front in addition to the 2 year plan.
And I am pretty sure this one will get cheaper very soon.
I have Navigon its pretty good, I also have TomTom and while it looks nicer, I need voice. But still both suck compared to my Nuvi 765, and I would use Navigon more often if the person speaking didn't sound like she was a sick 100 with throat problems.
Actually this:
..."Customers do not have to leave the application and type the address in the navigation search."
Is the one of the biggest (and admittedly few) advantages the Sprint/Samsung Instinct has had over all these phones, since its original launch.
iphone? yeah...as if thats the only phone that does decent navigation. but seriously, who would buy this? i mean...i guess its cool that you'll always have access to the most updated maps as long as you have a sim in it (basically as long as your tied to 30 bucks a month from some carrier). But i would MUCH rather prefer getting something like tom tom if you really wanna have a turn by turn solution. Shoot...as far as i'm concerned using Bing or GMaps is more than fine for me...my data includes the traffic and all that crap. No need to spend an extra 6 bucks a month (for the lifetime of the device) AND also be stuck w/ as i read it, a dumb phone on top of that (can't download applications on the device). i know i'm a nobody...but when it comes to this phone...MJOM. (making jack off motion)
How the **** are you getting atleast $400 when an iPhone is 99 and Navigon, the best GPS app, is $89.
Ok.
because the iPhone is JUNK!!!
OH LOOK! Garmin made a Folio!
So is it a phone with a GPS or a GPS with a phone?...seems like i've seen this before.
it's a GPS with a phone with an optional GPS
"Let's just be brutally honest here: Garmin-Asus' nuvifone G60 is basically the Duke Nukem of phones."
hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Probably not.
And someone is going to pay $300 for this instead of a Garmin Nuvi GPS because.....-
I think AT&T wants the phone to fail, don't see another way to explain the price...
@Quantumphysics
I navigate just fine with the iphone.
This phone is a waste of money. Just buy a GPS unit and have a regular phone you save ur 30 bucks a month.
"Q. What is Garmin Premium Services?
A. Garmin Premium services (GPS) is available for $5.99 a month after a 30 day free trial. GPS gives customers real time access to traffic updates, gas prices, white pages, weather, local events and movie listings. To activate GPS customers must click on one of the service icons on the device and accept the terms of service. After 30 days, customers will automatically be enrolled in GPS and will be billed $5.99 a month until they call in to cancel the service (For $5.99 a month the customer gets full access to all of the CPS on the device)"
Wow, AT&T makes you purchase a $30 data plan then charges you an additional $5.99 a month to use the "premium service" on the GARMIN phone. That's like charging extra to use the media player on a music phone. I just find it absurd that you have to pay extra (where "extra" is understood to mean a fee on top of the voice plan and on top of the required $30 fee) to use the GPS service of the GARMIN device.
C'mon cut them some slack. How else are you going to get movie times on your phone... oh right, it has a web browser. Well, nevermind.
So are they going to charge a 30 dollar a month data charge AND a 10 dollar navigation charge?
its funny looking at the comments 2 1/2 years ago when this thing was unveiled... it was called the first true competitor to the Iphone... LAMO!
Two years ago. Things have changed since then. Unfortunately this phone hasn't.
[right click] -> [add to dictionary]
LOL @ "Duke Nukem of phones!"
"Come get some!"
Made a lot of money shorting Garmin stock, time to start the fun all over again.
I though you were on life support.... Garmin, you fail.
I will just wait for the Motorola Sholes... since it just passed the FCC
"Once a customer buys the device and puts a SIM into the phone, navigation will"
Um, why is a GPS chip dependent on a SIM card? damn carriers
failphone wants failmoney for failfeatures. ALL HAIL THE NEW FAIL.
Finally, a GPS that can make calls.
Anyone else notice the 1 year commitment price? I didn't know at&t did 1 year contracts... Have they been doing this all along?
Man, this seems to be quite a heavy phone, 4.80 oz.
It doesn't sound that bad, but I feel it will just be for a specific market. You can't download things, no corp email, etc Sigh
I was just reading about this on CSP (internal site for at&t) and at&t has this device exclusive for 2 years. WOW
Huh? A required $30 a month data plan? Additional $6 fee for "traffic updates, gas prices, white pages, weather, local events and movie listings"? This is such a scam.
It would make more sense to buy a Garmin Nuvi and pay $100 for the lifetime MSN Direct service. And no data plan required either.
No one is dumb enough to buy this?
Right???
Soooo late, Soooo what...
So WTF is the OS in this thing? Windows Mobile x.y? Android? Something Garmin or Asus homerolled from Linux? I assume its a smartphone since it comes with a data plan.
Does the GPS software even work if you're on a conference call?
#FAIL
No Way. Are AT&T or Garmin gone Crazy...?
iPhone you get 80k+ app's, ok ok, at least 10k+ unique apps, with nuviPhone you can check only mails, and some crap apps like Zune HD. Then what, GPS.
Why the heck AT&T / Garmin wanted charge for a GPS 300$ + 30$ data plan for 2yrs. Same Garmin has nuvi GPS for 200$. I'll rather go for it and get an iPhone.
BTW, I'm a M$ fan, I own iPhone, bought & returned Zune HD.
But, this crap is crazy. AT&T will never realize.
wow, I'm impressed. I wish my Pre did all that...wait, it does, and a bit more, ooooohhh and it costs less to buy, cheaper to run, has apps, can download stuff...who would buy this thing over a pre, iphone, blackberry, or treo? I'd take my treo 755p over this POS anyday of the week. Sorry garmin. b
I like how everyone is a phone expert now saying that the iphone, pre, blah, blah, blah is better. I'm not saying its a great phone.......its for a target market (e.g. iphone for trendy multimedia entertainment phone). If mobile phones with GPS were so great working as a GPS the GPS market would go out of business. Oh...and its a good thing that I bought just bought the Pre for $99 because thats about how much its worth. The apps are good but feels like a toy phone. Fail to all the fan-boys who bought the phone initially.
"If mobile phones with GPS were so great working as a GPS the GPS market would go out of business".
So are you for this phone? Because this is a phone with GPS....... You lost me buddy.
edu3000 its obivous that your name does not reflect how smart you are.......I already have a Pre. I know you're lost it okay. Keep studying you'll need it.
G1(100)+Copilot(40 but I got mine for free)= Flawless Navigation.
Oh and NO market? What a terrible thing to launch.
Q. Can customers download applications using the G60?(assuming this means a market as well)
A. All the applications that can be used on the Garmin G60 are resident on the device. Garmin nuvifone G60 does not support download capabilities
It is not supposed to compete with the Pre/iPhone folks, it is for people who want a dedicated navigation system which also happens to be able to place/reeive calls browse the internet and get some personal email.
Its a pretty small target audience, but thats the deal in my opinion. I do not expect this to sell that well, but I am willing to bet that people that buy it will be pretty happy with it. Garmin does NAV very well.
Bottom line is that nav applications on mobile phones are hurting the dedicated NAV business so Garmin (and I am sure others) are trying to shore up their customer base by joining in the mobile phone game. This is their first attempt, and i expect it to sell fairly well to a very small audience. Not everything that launches is intended to do iPhone numbers.