- November 3, 2010 10:08 pm
After several dismal years of failed attempts to gain smartphone acceptance, Garmin is officially throwing in the towel. The news came during Garmin’s summer fiscal discussions. While the GPS giant is down and out of the smartphone hardware business, the company reiterated their plans to continue developing smartphone apps and stand alone GPS units — two areas they are still enjoying expansion.
It’s been a quick, bumpy ride for Garmin since unveiling the Nuvifone back in January of 2008. Initial reception was far south of what Garmin was hoping for. Sales were also nothing to write home about — ever. The nail in the coffin, however, was the actual number amount of revenue, or more specifically, the lack thereof. In the entire two years that Garmin and Asus teamed up, $27 million is all they have to their name. In contrast, Apple has sold over $8 billion this past summer alone.
There’s really nothing more to say.
- November 11, 2009 3:12 pm
You would think that after numerous missed deadlines and broken promises, a company such as Garmin who has been hyping up their Nuvifone offerings for well over a year now would have something that would truly drop our collective jaws. Sadly, with the latest announcement of all new Nuvifone M20′s dropping Garmin’s proprietary OS in favor of WinMo 6.5, a grim painting is starting to form on this once great concept. This is but one example of how a perfect idea on paper can falter and become a sad disappointment once it materializes.
Those of you who picked up an M20 before this decree went out can will be able to pick up the WinMo 6.5 download for free (some saving grace I guess.) The countries named that are to receive the new Windows love include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech, Turkey as well as “elsewhere by the close of 2009″. Strange that the western world is left out of the loop though not the first time we’ve had to sit back and watch our fellow Eastern geeks receive such lavish attention.
It may seem sad that some will miss out on the 6.5 love fest. But if you’re like me, an “upgrade” to WinMo 6.5 is anything but. Where do you stand?
BGR
{Image Source}
- February 12, 2009 10:51 am
The much talked about Garmin-Asus pairing is finally coming to light today as Garmin and Asus have spilled the beans on the latest nuvifone…the M20. The M20 will feature Windows Mobile 6.1 (sorry Android hopefuls). A 2.8 QVGA touchscreen as well as GPS navigation…*obviously*. The radios stuffed inside include quad-band EDGE/Tri-band HSDPA (up to 7.2Mbps) as well as WiFi and Bluetooth. Other tasty tid bits include weather, real-time traffic and movie times. If you’re interested in bringing a ton of files on board with you, take a mental note that it only comes in 4GB and 8GB storage sizes so you’ll have to choose wisely the files you want to bring with you on the road. One last thing to round out the package is a new service that Garmin has dubbed “Ciao”. Think of it as another version of Google Latitude to find friends. Pricing and availability will be out soon…as in the first half of the year. Full rundown on the specs and plenty of eye candy…step inside…
