More than a year after it was first announced, Garmin is finally readying its much anticipated nuviphone to hit the market, and the major player in portable nav is getting a hand from PC powerhouse Asus. In what's being called an alliance (not a joint venture, mind you), the two companies announced earlier this week that they'll be developing and distributing a line of GPS-enabled Garmin-Asus smartphones.
The companies will make the first co-branded nuvifone, the G60, available by July 2009 and plan to offer more models before year's end.
So why should you care if you're carrying around an iPhone or some other mobile phone with GPS?
For one, you still can't get turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone (not yet, at least). And while other phones do offer the feature, as PCmag.com points out, on those devices GPS functions are "siloed" apps that can't share data with the device.
And while Apple's iconic iPhone has 15,000 apps and counting, the nuviphone runs a Linux-based OS and both Garmin and Asus plan to make Google Android-based phones, which could eventually prove to be the equivalent of an App Store on steroids.
The nuvifone may also be a watershed product that represents a major shift in navigation to handheld portable devices, the way many have been predicting -- and in the same way that the iPod changed the way we bring music into the car.
And it could also signal the death knell for in-dash navigation and portable nav.
blueguydotcom says:
12:03 AM, 02/ 7/09
In-dash needn't die. The pricing needs to come to reality. It's less than $150 in equipment and software priced at 2k. Luxury manus should make it standard and put it in with a $300 bump in price.
We don't need a turn-by-turn system...we've got blackberrys that can use google maps and that's good enough.
estreka says:
01:43 AM, 02/ 8/09
I'm surprised by how long this tech revolution is taking. I'm equally surprised Google is involved.
estreka says:
01:44 AM, 02/ 8/09
"...surprised Google is NOT involved."
Can a blogger get an edit button here?
compliance says:
09:34 AM, 02/ 9/09
The more Android phones the better. They should get these out with Android day 1.