Garmin Announces nuvifone… Bitch Say What?
In what wasn’t the biggest surprise in recent history, Garmin announced yesterday that it intends to release its first GSM phone in Q3 of this year. Dubbed nuvifone (no, not moviefone), the virgin Garmin offering is a sleek touchscreen device with an all-too-familiar form factor. Garmin’s own OS will drive the nuvifone and specs are very limited for the time being. Of course it will pack high-quality navigation that is similar if not identical to the software found in current nuvi devices, and it will ship in the US with North American maps preloaded. Garmin scores serious points by stuffing HSDPA into the slender device; presumably 850/1900 for AT&T network compatibility. The 3.5" touchscreen doesn’t hurt either. Other items noted in the announcement are integrated email and IM functionality, Google local search and support for Garmin online services such as traffic, weather, fuel prices and hotel discounts. The nuvifone will also include a video capture-capable camera and MP3 / MPEG4 / AAC support. The UI images that are available make it look, well, very plain. There appears to be plenty of empty white space on most of the screenshots which is good for visibility and bad for wow-ability. Then again, there is plenty of time between now and the end of the 3rd quarter so there’s no telling what the release version might look like. Pricing on the nuvifone was not covered during the announcement but we’ll update you with more info as soon as we have it. Truth be told, it looks pretty sweet. Garmin made an interesting choice by using their own OS however. We have to wonder how long it will be before we get some SDK action.
As a Blackberry user and a iPhone “considerer”, I am moved by the prospects of the Nuviphone. The prospect of the Nuviphone should at least serve to keep the competition on their toes.
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Yea I might actually dump my iPhone for one of these…
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There is nothing like navigating and having the phone ring. Navigation should be navigation and phones should be phones.
These things remind me of of all-in-one video or audio products - lots of functions with mediocre performance at all of them.
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@Rob - I thought I read of gizmodo that you would be able to put it in the windshield mount and it would automatically turn to hands free. Which is good I guess but what if your walking and its navigating?
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I’m thinking that this could be the new touchscreen phone of this year, kinda like the iPhone was last year.
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This is not the first GSM phone from Garmin… https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=145
I wonder if this is why Nokia was so interested in NAVTEQ.
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I could only hope that T-Mobile would be able to pick this phone up. By the 3Q T-Mobile should have 3G up in certain key markets and with At&t having the iPhone I don’t know if Stevie boy would take to kindly to a phone that might steal some of his customers away. I know that the iPhone and this phone have certain key differences, but I know for my money which I would buy ;).
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this looks like a killer phone!
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I have to agree with rob!
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I have one UMTS SE V800iphone that does plenty for a private user but truly NOT interested in public usage & access if I can help it (I fundamentally hate/loath yakking in public with a cellphone, hence a discrete use with a Jabra sleek 250v is my solution), and having two widescreen GPS while driving, I can see this potential “must have” as a worthy one to put the considerations like Iphone and even the TyTNII or N95s to fill the local bins pretty soon.
This is my kinda positive contribution Garmin is giving for value… focusing on co-ordinates coupled with a GPS and default transfers to another thru the mobile network without heavy hardware cameras involved either, which certainly is not like those that Stevieboy wants us to have so he fills his pockets with silly and ignorant wannabes wanting everything that Apple throws out!!!
I’m waiting for this to be added to my dashboard!
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