Six Month Wait For Garmin nüvifone

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 04 February 2008

Just as mobile phone makers are experimenting with GPS phones ahead of a mass market roll-out of personal navigation and the location-based services that they will bring, GPS manufacturers are equally well positioned to encroach on the mobile phone market dominated by the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. And although some are calling this news an announcement of Garmin's iPhone killer, the news is more important as a pointer to future competitive pressures for traditional phone manufacturers as convergence continues to combine multiple features into one device and makers of non-phone products equip their devices with telephony capabilities. Garmin describes it new phone as "a work of art in features, design and functionality" which will "transform how individuals connect, communicate and navigate their life". Increasingly, consumers are looking for more than just voice when they are on the move. While phone makers have tried to satisfy these desires putting PIMs, email and document functionality, media players, cameras and more recently navigation into their products, the devices have remained voice-centric with other functionality tending to be an add-on feature. They have also tended to do none of them really well. This has tended to push designs toward smaller screens and overall size. While large touchscreen display's are common on business phones, to some degree the iPhone changed all that putting a large display on a consumer phone and making it only user interface. A larger screen opens up a far bigger world of secondary functionality and while people who really want navigation and generally phone from their car may choose a phone from a GPS company like Garmin, how many non-GPS owners this device will attract will probably depend on how well Garmin does voice as much as how well Nokia does navigation. We'll have to wait a while to find out, though. The new phone design announced by Garmin is not due on the market until third quarter so users will have a six month wait at least until they can get their hands on one. At this point there is no pricing announced and not even a lot of specifications to go on. One thing definitely in its favour is the 3.5G network speeds (HSDPA) at the core of the device. This will make sure there's data to feed the Internet browser and so long as the processor used in the product is up to the task, should make the 3.5 inch screen a handy little communications device for emailing, text messaging, gaming, MP3 playing and, critically, searching. According to the announcement, when powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons - "Call," "Search," and "View Map" which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone's functions. The nüvifone will include Google local search capability which will mean users can search for locations like "coffee shops" and Google will sort the results based on the user's current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. When the nüvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user never misses a beat in the conversation and is able to begin routing to their destination with ease. In addition to navigation, the nüvifone includes access to Garmin Online, an online service offering constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts. Photos taken with the device's camera will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nüvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google's Panoramio picture sharing site. www.garmin.com/nuvifone Newer news items Nokia Finds There's Money In Maps -12/02/2008 Older news items Google FInds Mobiles Without GPS -28/11/2007 Garmin Does Phone Nav -04/10/2007 Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 Australia's First Free Mobile Navigation Service -13/09/2007 ASUS A686/696 GPS PDA -23/08/2007 Tag This Now: