Garmin Android Phone Announcement Coming This Year

• Rob Jackson
• 15 years ago

At the beginning of this year, Garmin and ASUS announced their smartphone partnership in hopes of catapulting themselves to the forefront of the booming smartphone market. But what better way to catapult any phone to new heights these days than loading it up with Android? None – and that is exactly what the joint venture plans on doing. Unfortunately for us those plans have been delayed and delayed and delayed. But maybe not for much longer.

At a media event in Taiwan, Asustek (ASUS) CEO Jerry Shen said the following regarding their Android phone plans:

While most of their comments were general statements about the market, Shih did say that the company’s Android smartphone will be unveiled this year.

If you’re confused about how I jumped from Garmin to Garmin-ASUS to ASUS and back to Garmin you should know something about the partnership: ALL phones made by either company will be a joint venture but in North America the “Garmin” name will be used while elsewhere the more recognizeable “ASUS” name will be attached. AT&T recently launched the first ever Garmin phone – the Nuvifone G60 – but if the same phone were launched in Asia it would likely be called the ASUS Nuvifone G60.

The Garmin/ASUS naming convention is all semantics. The point is that ASUS pretty much confirmed on behalf of the joint venture that a Garmin Nuvifone with Android will be announced before the end of the year. That is exciting stuff any way you try and twist it.

[Via DigiTimes]