How vaporware is born: the Garmin-ASUS nuvifone G60 delayed again
So much for June. During a conference call with analysts last week, Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble confessed that the nuvifone G60 will be delayed due to technical issues. Stating that 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,” is somewhat of a valid excuse, but we mean c’mon — this handset was announced over 15 months ago and still hasn’t seen the light of day. And you know what that led to? Garmin-ASUS pimping the G60 like it was brand new because of their “strategic alliance”, which so far has amounted to nothing more than vaporware and lots of it. The nuvifone G60 is now slated for a release sometime in 2H09 meaning that Absolutely. No. One. Will. Care.
[Via PMP Today]
I care
Thats why you do what Apple did and keep it a secret until you have something that is at least close to being ready for the prime time. I would imagine the iPhone was full of delays as well. Delays are part of reality. If Garmin was smart they would have kept it a complete secret, or have just been saying “We are working on a phone” and nothing more. You show something off, it build anticipation, but if the wait is too long, you have to wow again. For example, lets say the Pre gets delayed until next year, a lot of the wow will be gone. Sales based on “wow, I want that” are huge.
I really wanted that phone. In January 2008, when it was announced. I moved on.
that last lil sentence with links to the most anticipated phones was a low blow bgr.. i love it.. but if my touch pro has a version of garmin that appears to be tha same as the gps units what more can their phone do. im sorry but this idea is dumb.. no one is gonna buy a smartphone that only has good gps when tons of phones have good gps some from the same people
@ celz
I agree with one of ur points, and disagree with the other.
Agree: When other phones like the Fuze, Storm, Nokia e71 etc can all have proper built-in turn-by-turn software…I don’t even see a niche or market this phone can exploit. And the worst part is, Garmin is not coming out with newer statements indicating how this phone is possibly different from other phones. Its still the same lame image, no device in actual build version, no specs, just nothing. These guys are already setting it up for MAJOR FAIL!
Disagree: The low blow. I thought that was slick! Good one BG
i think its a good move. don’t make the same mistake that rim did with the storm. work out all the kinks, the major ones anyway, then release it to the public. keeping people waiting only increases the hype, and sometimes hype is good for sales, imho.