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UPDATE: Garmin has given Asus an exclusive on their nav app for Android.
Garmin and Asus revealed more information today on their future plans re: mobile, but here’s the big news:
“Garmin will expand its mobile handset application development and plans to offer navigation and other applications through certain consumer application stores. “
China’s Economic daily is reporting that the Garmin-Asus smartphone partnership will be dissolved come January, at the end of its two-year contract. The translated report is less than clear, but it does state that Asus will continue making smartphones on their own and that Garmin will supply navigation for them.
It looks like Garmin-Asus may be moving forward with plans to roll out a Windows Phone 7 model in Q1 2011. The report from DigiTimes is actually a bit oblique:
“Garmin-Asus is expected to launch 1-2 Android-based smartphones in the Taiwan market before the end of 2010 following the successful launch of A10 in September. However, the Garmin-Asus team will not launch smartphones based the Windows Phone 7 platform until the first quarter of 2011.”
This comes on the heels of a statement a month ago by Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman implying that the company would make a decision on whether or not to leave the smartphone market in the next six months. Meanwhile, there’s a hole to pour some money down.
Should they stay or should they go? That’s the smartphone market decision Garmin expects to make in the next couple of quarters, according to a Reuters interview with Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman, who said:
The T-Moble Garminfone is Garmin’s first Android smartphone released in North America. Produced by the Garmin-Asus partnership, it includes many of the goodies you would find on a nuvi, including North American maps, junction view, lane assist, Where am I?, tracklogs and multi-destination routing.
A Garmin-Asus E600 “PDA phone” has cleared the FCC. Little information was made available in the filing though, with no indication whether it is going to be an Android phone or use the customized Linux OS found on their first AT&T nuvifone. About all we can say is that it’s a GSM phone that appears to be bound for AT&T.
There were a couple of major announcements made yesterday by TomTom and Garmin-Asus; unfortunately they didn’t involve products for the US, at least not yet. I do expect that all will be making it to our shores eventually. The Garmin-Asus team will need to romance a carrier first, while TomTom just seems to have a Europe-first attitude. Here’s what we they got…
UPDATE: Read my hands on review of the T-Mobile Garminfone.
Garmin and T-Mobile have announced the Android-powered Garminfone, which will be exclusive to T-Mobile. This seems to be a US version of the nuvifone A50, previously announced for some Asian and European markets. That model got quite a few positive reviews, unlike the original nuvifone G60. Availability is slated for later this spring. This is the first release branded as a Garminfone rather than a nuvifone; that’s probably a good marketing decision, since the Garmin name is so well known. There’s no indication which version of Android the Garminfone is running.
Garmin-Asus has announced their first Android phone, the nüvifone A50. It includes on-board maps, lane assist and junction view, comes with a car mount, and is compatible with Garmin’s CityXplorer maps. Nothing shocking there; the biggest news is availability – the A50 is expected to be available in the first half of 2010 in Europe – no word on a US release! Oh, and Engadget is reporting that it’s running Android 1.6, two full generations behind the Nexus One’s 2.1. Here’s the full news release:
Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin® Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), and ASUSTeK® Computer Inc. (TAIEX: 2357), today announced the Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50, a touchscreen Android-powered smartphone with multiple location technologies and apps. The A50 benefits from the personalization and enhanced features offered by the Android platform, and also includes Garmin navigation with turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions for use in a car or while walking. Location features are designed into virtually every function including email, text messaging, and photos. The A50 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus booth (Hall 8, #8B127) at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.
Wow! PC Magazine has posted a Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 review and they slammed it, giving it a 2 out of 5 star review, saying, “It’s like Garmin gave up halfway through the development cycle and released what it had.” This, despite some fairly positive points. It sounds like it’s a good phone and a good navigator, but a weak smartphone. Don’t count the boys from Olathe out yet though, because that could actually bode well for the forthcoming Android nuvifones. Here’s hoping they can cut many months off the development (and carrier certification) cycle!
Read for yourself, but here are the highlights and lowlights:
GPS Tracklog is written by Rich Owings, author of GPS Mapping.
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