By There are two things that happened in 1492:
- Columbus sailed the Ocean blue
- Garmin promised to make a phone
517 years later Garmin finally delivered a phone but they also promised Android Phones were on the way. A partnership with ASUS actually promised many phones in the coming years but we have yet to see them follow through on the Android variety. It seems they want to remind us that the phones are still in the pipeline.
In a Chinese ZDNet article an ASUS executive re-iterated their intentions to launch an Android Phone in the 2nd Quarter of 2010 along with at least 4-5 phones TOTAL in the 2010 year. With half of the phones being Android that means… they’ll launch at least one additional Android Phone at some point in the year. Nothing staggering but they’re probably just taste testing the market and how they can compete.
Personally I’m not all that excited based solely on the Nuvifone, but maybe with Android’s power they’ll be able to beef up their game.
I feel like this was an absolute fail before it began…
The original Nuviphone’s, based on WinMo and a custom Linux OS, were (are) a complete failure. Garmin took far too long getting them to market. And not that we have Android 2.x w/ Google Nav, many won’t even give these phones a second glance.
But an Android Nuviphone could have the best of both worlds. All the Google goodness + Garmin Nav w/ onboard maps of the entire country. This would be the ultimate phone for me. No need to worry about 3G coverage when using Nav. Problem is they have to keep the price down to compete w/ all the other Android phones coming out which will have Google Nav standard, which will be a ‘good enough’ nav solution for most people.
The who? What? Oh sorry. Too busy trying to decide if I want the Nexus One, Droid, MotoRoi or Bravo. Or maybe wait and give Apple a chance to announce their 4G. Garmin hasn’t earned my attention. I saw their $300 (still) phone the other day at the AT&T store. I’d rather buy Windows Mobile 4.0.
Nexus One (@Andrew Ryan) triumphs all and will for a long time
Unless I’m blown away by some iPhone or WinMo7 preview, I’ll probably get the first one available here. Except the Droid, that probably will be the Nexus on Big Red. Ambiguous “Spring 2010” can’t get here soon enough.
Forget that get the droid for $109.99 right hear http://androidfeens.com/2010/01/21/motorola-droid-now-109-99/
I probably wont buy this phone. I am however hoping that someone will be able to lift the garmin navigation from the nuviphone and load it to other android phones. Then we can all enjoy some quality offline navigation goodness.