nuvifone
Latest
ASUS officially walks away from Garmin-Asus partnership
Chalk another up to the rumor mill. Just as we'd heard, the Garmin-Asus partnership will soon be no more. After a few arguably valiant attempts to break into the smartphone market, it seems as if ASUS is walking away in hopes of finding greener grass elsewhere. According to Reuters, an unnamed ASUS official has confirmed that it would be "ending its mobile phone cooperation agreement with Garmin." We're expecting the rest of the breakup details to roll tomorrow, but honestly, you'd turn the other cheek and move on if you were classy. But we both know that's not happening, right?
Garmin-ASUS collaboration said to be ending in January
It was hinted at back in September, now the Chinese-language Economic Daily is reporting that the Garmin-ASUS joint venture will end in January after the two-year deal expires. We've heard this from our own sources as well. At that point, Asus will return to flooding the market with indistinguishable product iterations and Garmin will go back to watching GPS-enabled smartphones (and now tablets) eat away at the dedicated personal navigation device market. ASUS is expected to continue making GPS-enabled smartphones under the ASUS brand with Garmin providing navigation and mapping software.
Garmin: 'we'll have to make decisions within the next couple of quarters' on future of phone business
It doesn't take a rocket scientist -- er, make that a smartphone industry analyst -- to figure out that Garmin's been underperforming in the handset game since it tied up with ASUS early last year; notable missteps have included lackluster hardware, a hopelessly delayed first model, banking fortunes on WinMo in its twilight years, and a general failure to capture the kinds of blockbuster carrier deals that can prop up your bottom line. Indeed, it wasn't long ago that the company went public with the fact that Garmin-Asus' financials weren't where they needed to be, but things are getting a little more serious now: CFO Kevin Rauckman has mentioned in an interview that they'll need to decide "within the next couple of quarters whether [they] continue to invest or whether [they] pull back." Of course, "pull back" is probably code for "cut and run," since there's really no good way to half-ass your smartphone presence and still earn customer loyalty and turn a profit. Looking at Garmin's bigger picture, it still doesn't really need to make smartphones to survive -- the PND market remains healthy, and the company has a huge presence in the marine and aviation industries -- but we're sure they'd like a piece of the cellular pie. Touch nut to crack, isn't it, guys?
Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was 'below our plan'
Garmin's second-quarter results hit the wires this week, and overall, the company seems to be pretty healthy; its automotive, outdoor, aviation, and marine businesses all posted growth, average selling price was up, and shipped units grew a solid 8 percent year-over-year. If you read a little deeper, though, there's one segment that undelivered -- smartphones, a joint venture the company shares with ASUS -- which contributed $27 million in revenue in the last three months. $27 million in profit would be business as usual for a division of a company of Garmin's size, but $27 million in revenue is a drop in the bucket -- and sure enough, the earnings report goes on to say that the performance was "below [its] plan." They go on to say that they're "working aggressively with T‐Mobile and other carriers around the globe on the appropriate positioning and pricing of our devices in the competitive smartphone space," interesting wording considering our shock at the Garminfone's initial pricing (and the fact that it's more recently come down to $130 for new subscribers). In Garmin's own words, the smartphone business is competitive to say the least -- you can't waltz in with an overpriced first-gen product and expect the world -- so it'll be interesting to see how they adjust going forward.
T-Mobile Garminfone gets a much-needed price drop to $129
When we got a chance to let the Garmin-Asus Garminfone send us around town for a review, we found it to be about the best nav-focused smartphone on the market. But, its $200 price made it a tough sell compared to many far more powerful alternatives. Now it's finally dropping to a somewhat more easily palatable asking price of $129.99 with the usual contract restrictions. That's a great price for a great phone with great navigation, and while we're still guessing that users here will not get invited out for FroYo anytime in the future, at this price you can afford to buy yourself some real ice cream.
Garmin nuvi 295W like a bolt from the blue, bearing email, camera and WiFi (video)
Ever heard of the Garmin nuvi 295W? Neither had we, until the GPS showed up spontaneously on Amazon. More Garminfone than PND, the device features the same 3.5-inch touchscreen, 3 megapixel camera and Garmin UI as its call-friendly counterpart, but without the front buttons, 3G data connection and subsidized price. That means you'll have to hoof it to a hotspot to send email, perform Google Local Search and upload geotagged photos -- all of which this unit can do -- but at least you'll have a dedicated GPS to help you get there. $280, available May 16th, see it in action after the break.
T-Mobile Garminfone official: Android, 3 megapixels, zero nuvi branding
We've known that Garmin-Asus has been working on a phone with T-Mobile's 3G bands for a while, but now we finally know what it is: meet the Garminfone. Yes, just "Garminfone" -- you won't find an ounce of nuvifone branding here, despite the fact that the device is a dead ringer for the nuvifone A50 announced back at MWC, which leads us to believe that AT&T might hold the exclusive American rights to market the name with its own G60. Whatever the case may be, you can expect a 3 megapixel autofocus cam, microSD expansion up to 32GB, WiFi, and full HSPA alongside Garmin's own flavor of Android (currently based on 1.6, we believe) that emphasizes its nuvi-esque navigation capabilities on a 3.5-inch HVGA display. As you might expect, it'll come bundled with a charging dash / windshield mount (notice those gold connectors on the side of the phone) when it launches "later this Spring." Follow the break for the full press release. %Gallery-91279%
Garmin and TomTom cling to profits, hope
As everyone knows, Garmin and TomTom have their backs against the ropes in a fight to remain relevant in an age of free GPS turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones (thanks Google and Nokia). While dedicated personal navigators are almost always superior to their converged competition, the gap has certainly narrowed such that it's become difficult to justify another device when an increasing number of people already carry a fine navigation device in their pockets. But that's just gut instinct talking, where's the hard evidence? Certainly not speculative stock prices. A good place to start is in forward-looking financial statements like the one Garmin, the leading navigation device maker in the US, just issued. Gamin says that it expects competition to cause prices to decline by about 10% in the personal navigation device (PND) industry putting pressure on margins, and thus profits, in 2010. It also sees flat or slightly declining revenue over the same period. Fortunately for Garmin, it has a diversified product offering that includes the Nuvifone. However, Garmin admits to being disappointed by sales of the handset that "won" our Editor's Choice award for Worst Gadget of the Year. Things aren't all doom and gloom, though. Garmin has a pair of Nuvifones in the chute including the Android-powered A50. And its Q4 results of $1.43 per share easily beat analyst expectations of 95 cents a share. Even TomTom surprised many last week with a 1% increase in Q4 revenue and net profit of €75 million compared to a €989 million loss a year ago. So there's some hope left for the dedicated PND market... but not much.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone M10 gets handled, reviewed in the wilds of Russia
We just heard about Garmin-Asus' WinMo 6.5.3-packin' M10 yesterday, and already the handset has been broken out for a photo shoot and hands-on review in Russia. The design itself isn't anything otherworldly, but we have to say -- we're kind of digging the user interface. Granted, we've a soft spot in our hearts for Garmin's nuvi line of PNDs, so anything remotely familiar gets a big thumbs-up 'round these parts. At any rate, critics noted that the phone was a pleasant mix of WinMo and nuvi, which is something that really sets it apart from other Windows Mobile-based offerings. There's nary a mention of exactly how awesome this thing would be with Windows Mobile 7, but if you're in no hurry to ponder the next big thing, give that source link a look.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone M10 offers Windows Mobile 6.5.3 with an obsession for navigation
Garmin-Asus phones, they're like buses aren't they -- you wait for ages to get one, then two come along at the same time. Seeking to sate as many mobile OS appetites as possible, the partner company has quickly followed up its A50 Android handset with this here M10, sporting Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile build. As only the second WinMo 6.5.3 device around, the M10 is as up to date as you can get on the software front, though earlier word of a slightly dated 600MHz Qualcomm MSM 7227 CPU will douse some enthusiasm on the hardware side. Then again, Garmin-Asus do furnish you with 512MB of both RAM and ROM and a decent 4GB of integrated storage, so it's not like this is going to be a slouch or anything, and the 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen should also do a nice job of displaying the built-in turn-by-turn navigation. Location awareness is said to be ingrained in everything the phone does, with navigation functions attached to the calendar, web browser, messaging and email clients. Launch is slated for the first half of 2010, and you can quite naturally expect us to get all up close and personal with this handset at MWC next week.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50 runs Android, knows where you are turn-by-turn
The long rumored Nuvifone jump to Android is here just as we get set to kick off Mobile World Congress next week. Garmin and ASUS claim that the A50 brings "more location technology than any other smartphone" with a plethora of location-aware apps making use of a highly sensitive (though unnamed) GPS receiver. Spec-wise, the A50 packs a 3.5-inch HVGA (that's 480x320 pixels, presumably) capacitive touchscreen with custom, finger-friendly UI, 4GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, and accelerometer for the usual portrait to landscape mode flip. The A50 uses satellite, network-based, and terrestrial sources to quickly zero in on your location and comes pre-loaded with Garmin turn-by-turn navigation, lane assist with junction view, and maps -- no need to download them over the network (and risk data dead spots), eh Google. In fact, it's ready for in-vehicle (ships with car mount and vehicle power cable) or pedestrian navigation out of the box. The A50 also brings on-device sync with Microsoft Exchange server and includes all the usual Google mobile services like search by voice, Maps with Street View, Gmail, YouTube, and Android Market. Rounding things out are a multitouch WebKit-based browser and 3 megapixel autofocus camera that automatically geo-tags your snaps. The A50 will launch in Europe in the first half of 2010 though pricing has not been announced. We're still digging for more specs but will definitely be back with a detailed hands-on from Barcelona next week. Update: We have an insider telling us that the device runs Android 1.6 (something we've seen before) and uses Qualcomm's gpsOne platform for SatNav. Makes sense, but we won't be able to confirm until we meet with Garmin-Asus next week at MWC.
Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 emerges on Taiwanese pre-order page
It was only yesterday that we heard of this WinMo 6.5.3 beastie, and already Taiwanese ladies and gents can sign up to own one, pending a February 6 delivery. The new pre-order page confirms our earlier indications of a 3.5-inch WVGA display and 5 megapixel camera, while adding the knowledge of 512MB of both RAM and ROM, plus MicroSD storage expandability. A relatively low end Qualcomm MSM 7227 600MHz CPU drives the show here, and we're told a spare battery (1,500mAh by default) or a car holder for navigation also come as part of the 13,900 TWD ($435) package. So, are you excited or what?
Garmin-Asus taking wraps off first Android gear, M10 WinMo phone at MWC
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.
T-Mobile signed up for HTC Espresso, new Garmin phone in first half of the year?
Bringing the mighty HD2 on board is already quite a win for T-Mobile USA, but the fun doesn't stop there -- clearly these guys must have some other exclusives in the works, and TmoNews is noticing a tip trend toward a couple specific devices. First up, the phone we've heard rumored as the HTC Espresso is said to be coming to Big Magenta (we just made that up, you like it?) as either the myTouch 2 or myTouch Slide. Why "Slide," you ask? Well, there'll apparently be some sort of QWERTY keyboard in tow -- which, if true, hopefully means the carrier will be getting its non-QWERTY Android love from somewhere else. Next, T-Mobile is said to be working with Garmin (or Garmin-Asus, as it were) on a handset, something that would make perfect sense considering that we just saw an AWS-compliant device from those guys in the FCC. In terms of timing, we're rumored to be looking at May for both of these -- but considering how rarely these dates stay steady this far in advance, we wouldn't even raise an eyebrow if they slipped into the second half.
How would you change Garmin-Asus' nuvifone G60?
The nüvifone G60 took nearly two years to go from introduction to on sale at AT&T, and just weeks after its introduction, it has been nearly completely forgotten. Smartphones like Motorola's Droid and HTC's Droid Eris have already snagged the spotlight, and of course, that $300 (on contract) price tag that it debuted with didn't help attract any eyes, either. That said, we're sure at least a few (couple?) of you bit the bullet post-price drop, and now we're overly anxious to hear how you feel about it. After two years, does this thing really live up to the expectations? Are you satisfied with the navigation capabilities? Is the lackluster battery life worrying you yet? Should Garmin-Asus even bother with a second-gen device? Sound off in comments below!
Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20 makes jump to Windows Mobile 6.5
Two years ago, the idea of a Garmin-developed smartphone running the latest Windows Mobile operating system was enough to generate spasms of anticipation across the internets. Oh how things have changed. Today the Garmin-ASUS team has announced a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for M20 owners currently stuck at 6.1. It's also expanding the M20 theater of pain to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech, Turkey, and other markets by the end of 2009 -- note the omission of North American and Western European countries. Fine by us, we're perfectly happy to wait for the revamped Android handset running Google's turn-by-turn Navigator... oh, wait.
Garmin nuvifone G60 going for $100 on Amazon
You know what's insulting? Charging $300 for a nuvifone G60 in the year 2009. It's cool, though -- Amazon, as usual, is our knight in shining armor by swooping in with a $99.99 deal on contract, making the idea of a one-trick pony nav phone with a closed platform and hellish browser just a little more palatable. A big, fat caveat emptor still applies, of course.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 review
Had the device you're peering at above come out just a few months later, it would've taken two full years to go from introduction to on sale. Thankfully, the good folks over at Garmin and ASUS (and Garmin-Asus, as it were) were able to get the nüvifone G60 out to AT&T before the holiday shopping season of 2009, but were they still too late? There's no doubt that this very smartphone had a lot of folks drooling in early 2007, but to say a lot has happened in the mobile realm between then and now would be doing the truth a grave injustice. The iPhone 3G has fallen to $99, a slew of Android handsets have hit the market and dedicated PND (portable navigation devices) have found themselves in the bargain bin. Oh, and some pretty fantastic GPS software has managed to land within Apple's App Store and the Android Market. In other words, competition couldn't possibly be hotter, and considering that the specifications haven't been updated on this $299 device since it was originally announced, you're probably wondering if it even deserves a chance. Read on to find out the answer. %Gallery-74444%
Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 unboxing and hands-on
There she is. 20 months and 1 day after its original introduction to the world, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 is at long last in our (admittedly sweaty) palms. The highfalutin' smartphone isn't slated to hit AT&T shelves until this Sunday, but we were able to wrangle a retail unit early in order to bring you a sneak peek at what's to come. Frankly, we've been looking forward to this day for a long (long!) time. We've got a soft spot in our hearts for the Garmin navigation UI, and we have to say, that very same look and feel has been beautifully migrated to the mobile space. Upon unwrapping the phone, we were struck by just how classy the whole thing looks. It's plenty thin for being a GPS-turned-phone, light enough to not weigh you down and sturdy enough to somewhat justify the $299 (on contract) price. We did some brief browsing around, and everything felt satisfactorily snappy. The resistive touchscreen had some expected give, but by and large screen presses did exactly what we wanted 'em to in our limited testing. We're aiming to give this bad boy a serious critiquing over the next few days, but for now, feel free to peruse the absurdly detailed gallery below.%Gallery-74444%
Garmin nuvifone G60 officially coming to AT&T: October 4th for $299
Can you believe it? No, seriously -- can you believe it? Nearly two full years after its surprise introduction to the world, the nüvifone G60 is finally coming to US shores. In an official press release outed today, the Garmin nüvifone G60 has been blessed with an October 4th launch date on AT&T. Oddly enough, nary a mention of "ASUS" or "Garmin-Asus" is found, but regardless of semantics, you can bet that it'll be looking for buyers this Sunday. The internal GPS chip and 3 megapixel, auto-focusing camera will enable users to geotag photos and emails and navigate using the same heralded user interface that folks rely on today with the company's standalone PNDs. You've already pounded the specifications into your head by now, but the last figures you'll need to know are these: it'll run $299 on a two-year agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you're hoping to access Premium Connected Services -- which includes traffic updates, white pages, weather, movie, local events and fuel price content -- you'll be forking out $5.99 per month after the 30-day trial expires. So, after all of this, who's in?
