The crew in Olathe definitely has something up their sleeve. The same guys who gave us 50 nuvi models have only introduced a handful of new ones this past year (the nuvi 1490T, 1690, trucker-friendly 465T and the stealth-introduced nuvi 1450 — only the first two count as major consumer introductions). No new nuvis at CES, and they aren’t even exhibiting at CeBIT. So what’s up?
I would have said they were going to jump on the connectivity bandwagon whole hog, with major announcements at CTIA Wireless, but a little bird just told me that won’t be happening either. Maybe they’re going the Apple route, abandoning trade shows, reducing costs and doing it themselves. As far as what’s coming, I’m hoping we’ll see the nuvi 1800 series this spring, but who knows; maybe Garmin is winding up to pitch us a big curve ball.
Chime in below if you have thoughts about where they are heading.
Image via Terry Umbenhaur
About Rich Owings
It would be great if they come up with some kind of connected Oregon, that in addition to the current fuctions might as well have some extras such as the new Mio Moov V780. With web browser, media player,document viewer. It would be a great travel companion. Maybe this fits with the new Garmin/Asus phones , but with rugged characteristics.
Yes, the 1800 series isn’t too far away from the Moov V780. The lines separating these connected PNDs, MIDs and even tablets are pretty gray – they’re more about size and form factor than functionality.
And I agree that we’re bound to see Garmin introduce either ruggedized phones or connected handhelds at some point. It will definitely be interesting.
I’d keep an eye open the first week of April
Rumor of a product press release about then.
Thanks for the tip!