Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was ‘below our plan’

Garmin’s second-quarter results hit the wires this week, and overall, the company seems to be pretty healthy; its automotive, outdoor, aviation, and marine businesses all posted growth, average selling price was up, and shipped units grew a solid 8 percent year-over-year. If you read a little deeper, though, there’s one segment that undelivered — smartphones, a joint venture the company shares with ASUS — which contributed $27 million in revenue in the last three months. $27 million in profit would be business as usual for a division of a company of Garmin’s size, but $27 million in revenue is a drop in the bucket — and sure enough, the earnings report goes on to say that the performance was “below [its] plan.” They go on to say that they’re “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,” interesting wording considering our shock at the Garminfone’s initial pricing (and the fact that it’s more recently come down to $130 for new subscribers). In Garmin’s own words, the smartphone business is competitive to say the least — you can’t waltz in with an overpriced first-gen product and expect the world — so it’ll be interesting to see how they adjust going forward. Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was ‘below our plan’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:54:00 EST.

T-Mobile Garminfone gets a much-needed price drop to $129

When we got a chance to let the Garmin-Asus Garminfone send us around town for a review , we found it to be about the best nav-focused smartphone on the market. But, its $200 price made it a tough sell compared to many far more powerful alternatives. Now it’s finally dropping to a somewhat more easily palatable asking price of $129.99 with the usual contract restrictions. That’s a great price for a great phone with great navigation, and while we’re still guessing that users here will not get invited out for FroYo anytime in the future, at this price you can afford to buy yourself some real ice cream. T-Mobile Garminfone gets a much-needed price drop to $129 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:23:00 EST.

T-Mobile Garminfone now on sale, price still boggles the mind

As promised , T-Mobile has brought the Garminfone to retail today for $199 after $50 rebate on a new two-year contract, calling into question the viability of selling a nav-centric Android device with an HVGA display, 3 megapixel camera, and no 3.5mm headphone jack for $250 out of pocket in the store. We suppose the awesome car dock will attract some, but the myTouch 3G Slide certainly seems like the better option for less money — maybe this would work at $99 or $149, we suppose. Not that we’re impatient or anything, but where’s our Froyo update, Garmin? T-Mobile Garminfone now on sale, price still boggles the mind originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:03:00 EST.

Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50 runs Android, knows where you are turn-by-turn

The long rumored Nuvifone jump to Android is here just as we get set to kick off Mobile World Congress next week. Garmin and ASUS claim that the A50 brings “more location technology than any other smartphone” with a plethora of location-aware apps making use of a highly sensitive (though unnamed) GPS receiver. Spec-wise, the A50 packs a 3.5-inch HVGA (that’s 480×320 pixels, presumably) capacitive touchscreen with custom, finger-friendly UI, 4GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, and accelerometer for the usual portrait to landscape mode flip. The A50 uses satellite, network-based, and terrestrial sources to quickly zero in on your location and comes pre-loaded with Garmin turn-by-turn navigation, lane assist with junction view, and maps — no need to download them over the network (and risk data dead spots), eh Google.

Garmin-Asus taking wraps off first Android gear, M10 WinMo phone at MWC

It might be happening a little later than they’d originally hoped , but Garmin — through its partnership in Garmin-Asus — should finally be unveiling some Android-based phones pretty shortly in an effort to kickstart the firm’s weak showing thus far in the dog-eat-dog handset world. The VP of the mobile device business over at ASUS is talking up the joint venture’s 2010 plans this week, saying that it’ll show its first Android product at MWC next month with the hope of striking a pretty even balance between Android and WinMo shipments in the long term (no mention of the G60′s proprietary platform, interestingly). What’s more, they want to push a solid million units this year, and they’ll be looking to reach that goal by building somewhere between 4 and 5 models — at least one of which is likely destined for T-Mobile USA , as far as we can tell.

T-Mobile signed up for HTC Espresso, new Garmin phone in first half of the year?

Bringing the mighty HD2 on board is already quite a win for T-Mobile USA, but the fun doesn’t stop there — clearly these guys must have some other exclusives in the works, and TmoNews is noticing a tip trend toward a couple specific devices. First up, the phone we’ve heard rumored as the HTC Espresso is said to be coming to Big Magenta (we just made that up, you like it?) as either the myTouch 2 or myTouch Slide. Why “Slide,” you ask?

Garmin-Asus working on an AWS smartphone, but what is it?

How many phones does Garmin-Asus sell on T-Mobile? If you guessed zero, you’d be absolutely correct, so we’re buzzing about this FCC filing that popped up in the last few hours detailing a “PDA Phone” with AWS 3G frequency compliance. To be fair, this could be a device for Canada’s WIND Mobile, too, now that it’s sharing T-Mobile’s spectrum space — but either way, we’ve got to wonder what kind of phone we’re looking at here.

Acer, Asustek working on custom 3G phones for China?

If the sources that Digitimes is reporting are correct, then China can expect to see a few more customized, 3G phones in the coming year. The sources are saying that both Acer and Asustek are planning models for 2010, and that Acer is working with China Mobile and China Unicom to produce TD-SCDMA and WCDMA models while Asustek is reportedly set to release a China-specific Garmin-Asus branded handset for both carriers in 2010 as well. Now, keep in mind of course that none of this has been confirmed by either company as of yet, but the move certainly wouldn’t surprise us, either. Acer, Asustek working on custom 3G phones for China?

ASUS Android smartphone unveiling to be ‘this year’

Filed under: Handsets , ASUS , Android It’s short and sweet but we thought you’d like to hear the good news doled out by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and CEO Jerry Shen at a local press meeting in Taiwan today. Shih says that the company’s first Android phone will be “unveiled this year,” not next as originally rumored . For a second, it makes you wonder what’s going to happen to the OS underpinning the ASUS-Garmin nuvifone G60 — then you remember that you weren’t going to buy that phone anyway. ASUS Android smartphone unveiling to be ‘this year’ originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:42:00 EST

Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 review

Filed under: Handsets , Others , ATT , GSM , EDGE , HSDPA , Acer Had the device you’re peering at above come out just a few months later, it would’ve taken two full years to go from introduction to on sale . Thankfully, the good folks over at Garmin and ASUS (and Garmin-Asus, as it were) were able to get the nüvifone G60 out to AT&T before the holiday shopping season of 2009, but were they still too late? There’s no doubt that this very smartphone had a lot of folks drooling in early 2007, but to say a lot has happened in the mobile realm between then and now would be doing the truth a grave injustice. The iPhone 3G has fallen to $99 , a slew of Android handsets have hit the market and dedicated PND (portable navigation devices) have found themselves in the bargain bin. Oh, and some pretty fantastic GPS software has managed to land within Apple’s App Store and the Android Market

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