Garmin Comes Clean on Poor Smartphone Sales
Ah, the T-Mobile Garminfone. You know, the one that apparently sold less than five units on average per T-Mobile store? Asus was quick to deny that the phone made by the navigation and hardware duo involving Garmin was seeing sales below what the companies expected. But now the song isn’t so familiar as Garmin reports on its second quarter earnings. They freely admit that their smartphone division hasn’t performed quite as well as they would have liked. While the Garminfone did help contribute to positive revenues, the official statement reads:
“Sales of our smartphone product category contributed $27M in revenue during the quarter. While this was below our plan, we are working aggressively with T-Mobile and other carriers around the globe on the appropriate positioning and pricing of our devices in the competitive smartphone space.”
I feel like a broken record when I say that the on-board maps allowing for data connection free navigation was never enough to salvage a phone with painfully average hardware and an aging Android 1.6 in a summer of phones launching with Android 2.1 and now seeing upgrades to Froyo. But at least Garmin and Asus can no longer sit in denial, and instead might be motivated to try something truly innovative in the realm of a navigation-centric Android smartphone. They better think of something quick, because stand-alone GPS devices are fast becoming a niche market in themselves thanks to the excellent navigation capabilities of today’s advanced mobile devices.
[via IntoMobile]