And the Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone we had all left for dead as far as the United States is concerned is actually going to come to life tomorrow. The announcement was made earlier this week and by ‘announcement’ I mean ‘official announcement’. The handset that has a tale as long as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy is going to head for none other than AT&T. the G60 will set you back $299.99 on a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. Too pricey you say? You may just as well buy the iPhone 3GS and pair it with a free navigation app, but then there is the lure of new technology for some. Let’s see of the lure is strong enough.
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The Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone is pretty much the topic that hits a nerve with all navigation phone enthusiasts. If you’ve been living under a rock, the reason is the absolute absence of the handset. Even the merger of the companies couldn’t make the handset happen for all its fans. Well, it seems that the unthinkable may just happen, according to a report by TWICE Garmin is “getting very close” to a carrier launch here in the US. And the reason for the delay given by Garmin president and COO Cliff Pemble is;
“Originally we thought we’d launch the phone into the open market, but because of the strong interest we had from carriers, we chose to focus on a carrier-centric launch and meeting carrier requirements is a lot of work.”
So we dare again hope for the Nuvifone.
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After the successful invention of Hardware and software, we now bring you the latest from handset manufacturers; vaporware. So who are the innovators? Garmin-ASUS of course. We’ve been expecting the nuvifone G60 for over a year and a half now, in a conference call with analysts last week, Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble admitted that the nuvifone G60 will be delayed due to technical issues. Reason cited for the delay was; creating a smartphone such as the nuvifone G60 is “complicated” and that “bringing one to market that’s built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task.” Ok, given that is a valid one, but for the love of all that is good and holy, are 15 months really not enough, and if you really were going to have so many issues, why announce the poor beast so early. The nuvifone G60 is now slated for a 2H 09 release instead of the July debut. And when they say 2H, we know this could be Q4. Like anyone will actually want the nuvifone with the Pre, new iPhone, BlackBerry Tour, etc, etc to choose from.
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It’s been more than a year since we’ve been hearing about the Nuvifone, and now it seems that the Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone G60 is finally near release. Nothing official, but a Reuters article has placed the release sometime in June. There still isn’t an exact date or price for us but it still seems like the handset will head for AT&T. According to the article, “a source with direct knowledge of the project” has been the source of information that ASUS will issue its first LiMo-powered handset in June. Now sine the M20 runs Windows Mobile, the Linux Mobile handset is definitely a reference to the G60. So how does a handset with LiMo and 3G rate on our scales….very very highly.
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A couple of days ago, we told you that Garmin and ASUS were teaming up to bring the Nuvifone as a renamed G60, along with other models to follow soon. And true to their word, today Garmin made the news official with a press release about the latest handset from the duo; M20.
The M20 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone that boasts of quad-band EDGE / tri-band 7.2Mbps HSPA chipset, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4 to 8 GB of internal memory all under a 2.8″ VGA touchscreen display, and of course what phone in this day and age would be deemed ‘smart’ unless it had….you guessed it…GPS. The only difference is that Garmin is working on this little beast and it will be a beast of satellite navigation alright. The handset will pretty much leave the choice of LBS to you, but Garmin ASUS recommend Ciao. Another cool thing is that the M20’s GPS chip will work even without the support of a cellular network, which means you can mount the handset onto the car dashboard mount (included in the package) and drive around blindfolded (not literally) in the Australian outback (for now) and not get lost (stared at, but not lost). (Statements within brackets end, we like M20.)
Garmin and ASUS are partnering up. One of their first moves if to re-brand the Garmin Nuvifone as the G60. The companies have both committed to bringing out more devices for us during 2009, and the first installment of this promise will be making an appearance at the MWC 2009 expo (what a surprise!) the Nuviphone lineup is characterized by its focus on navigation, but the big question is still about the OS the new handsets will be running. And a surprisingly unconventional statement from an ASUS chairman tells us; “[ASUS has] expertise in WinMo, Linux and Android, but we believe the software is more important than the OS.”
While these aren’t exactly words of undeniable wisdom, because we DO care what OS our smartphones are running on, but yes, since no OS is a real novelty anymore, the selling point of the phone won’t be the OS. But this just means they have to really throw the ball out of the software park to make the kind of impact they’re claiming here. There had been word earlier that the Nuvifone would rock Android, but changing times call for change of minds, would certainly seem so.
Garmin has released some final screen shots of its Nuvifone before the final unveiling at the CES. It’s a delicious gallery, with images of what the home screen, web browser, navigation, email, calendar, camera, geotagging support will look like. Now the real test will be if the actual delivers on the hype. The Nuvifone is all set to be the touch screen marvel Garmin plans it to be, pairing a cool mobile web-browser with a smart looking personal navigator. It’s also the first 3.5G mobile phone.
The big guys at Garmin are all excited about their maiden venture into Smartphone-land. “The Nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all.”
The Nuvifone will also feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen that will display a trio of primary icons, Call, Search and View Map, along with an internet browser, HSDPA support and preloaded maps of North America and / or Eastern and Western Europe. Also, it houses “millions” of POIs, gives turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions and will be Garmin’s first device to include Google’s local search capability. No idea about pricing so far. Now feast your eyes on all the cool screen shots.
Home Screen
Browser
GeoTagging
Camera
Navigation
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