It might be happening a little later than they'd
originally hoped, but Garmin -- through its partnership in
Garmin-Asus -- should finally be unveiling some Android-based phones pretty shortly in an effort to kickstart the firm's weak showing thus far in the dog-eat-dog handset world. The VP of the mobile device business over at ASUS is talking up the joint venture's 2010 plans this week, saying that it'll show its first Android product at
MWC next month with the hope of striking a pretty even balance between Android and WinMo shipments in the long term (no mention of the
G60's proprietary platform, interestingly). What's more, they want to push a solid million units this year, and they'll be looking to reach that goal by building somewhere between 4 and 5 models -- at least one of which is
likely destined for T-Mobile USA, as far as we can tell. Android isn't the only thing on the docket for these guys at MWC, though: they'll also be showing the M10, allegedly running
Windows Mobile 6.5.3 with a 3.5-inch resistive display and a 5 megapixel camera with a retail price a little over $400. Finally, there are plans in the works for a TD-SCDMA phone for
China Mobile that'd be available toward the tail end of the year -- so all things considered, these guys might finally have a shot of making a dent in the market for once.
posted January 21st 2010 12:51AM
hmm so will these Garmin phones have google turn by turn directions?
@TheGr8t1
my exact thoughts. should be interesting for sure.
Good quality GPS hardware and software stuck on a decent smartphone OS would be a good seller, IMHO.
Garmin does it's GPS schtick, and let others fill out the rest of the phone's functionality. But... winmo6.5? Not the choice of champions.
The G60's proprietary platform will not be used in future phones. According to Engadget.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/garmin-asus-g60-slated-for-august-launch-will-be-last-non-andro/
It would be cool if they had map data stored on the device, with Google information and layers over the data...a hybrid of google navigation and traditional GPS.
@B3astofthe3ast
You could run OruxMaps, and add any topo map you want.
(I prefer to add opencyclemap maps to my gps)
Isn't this already out in China?
I think China Mobile is really going to hurt itself going the TD-SCDMA route for 3G. Although I doubt they have much say in this.
I bet this new Garmin Android will be named A50, as evidenced by a mysterious "Garmin-Asus Nuvifone A50" devices that showed up recently in our mobile analytics logs at Mobiware (http://www.mobiware.fr/2010/01/16/garmin-asus-android-nuvifone-device-spotted-in-the-wild/)
The bad news, however, is that this device was running Android 1.6... Hopefully they'll upgrade to the latest version by the time it is released.