Garmin Nüvifone

The Garmin Nüvifone is a line of Internet-enabled mobile phone and personal navigation devices manufactured by a partnership between Garmin and Asus. It makes use of a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and buttons.

Garmin Nüvifone
ManufacturerGarmin
Compatible networksQuad-band GSM
GPRS/EDGE
HSDPA
Availability by region10/4/2009 (AT&T)
Form factorCandybar Smartphone
Display3.5 in, color LCD
ConnectivityWiFi, Bluetooth[1]
Data inputstouchscreen

Description

Nüvifone is a 3G hybrid handset that can be docked into a vehicle mount. Once snapped onto the vehicle mount, it can automatically enable the embedded GPS navigation and simultaneously enable hands-free calls. It is featured with a geotagging built-in camera that can help recipients of the geocoded photograph trace to where the photos were taken.[2]

History

The Nüvifone product was announced on January 30, 2008 and only a prototype (presumably not fully functional) was available at the time. According to the first press release by Garmin, it was expected to be made available to market in the third quarter of 2008.[3] A later speculation pointed to the second half of 2009.

In February 2009 it was announced that the Nüvifone would be launched as the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone G60, as part of a series of forthcoming Garmin-Asus Nüvifone devices.[4] In the United States AT&T was the exclusive carrier for this model Nüvifone.[5]

At the same time, the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone M20 was announced for the Windows Mobile operating system.[6] This has a 640x480 pixel VGA touchscreen, running Windows Mobile 6.1, offering triband GSM/EGPRS + HSPA and WiFi connectivity, plus an accelerometer, a 3MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM and 4GB (8GB in some territories) of storage. The processor is a Qualcomm 7200A chip operating at 528 MHz. The device contained Ciao! — Garmin's location-based social networking application.[7]

The A10 and A50 Garmin-Asus Nüvifones were built on the Android platform, allowing users the purchase of connected service like traffic information and other accessories, plus the choice of installing thousands of free additional applications from Google Market.[8] In Australia, the A50 Nüvifone was made available exclusively through the Optus carrier, coming onto the Australian market in August 2010. It came complete with an in-car cradle for using it as a GPS and supporting Garmin's "PhotoReal" junction view.[9]

In 2010, Garmin announced it would stop making nüvifones altogether.[10]

List of Garmin cell phones
Name OS Release date Availability
G60 Proprietary (Linux) October 4, 2009 US (AT&T)
M20 Windows Mobile 6.1 February, 2009 Asia/Europe
M10 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 February 6, 2010 Asia/Europe
M10E Windows Mobile 6.5.3 July, 2010 Asia/Europe
A10 Android 1.6/2.1 Eclair July, 2010 Africa/Europe
A50/Garminfone Android 1.6/2.1 Eclair (via update) June 9, 2010 Australia (Optus)/Europe/US (T-Mobile)

See also

References
  1. Topolsky, Joshua (2008-01-30). "Announcement summary on Engadget". Engadget.com. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  2. Elena Malykhina (2008-01-31). "InformationWeek". InformationWeek. Archived from the original on 2008-03-05. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  3. "Press release". .garmin.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-27. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  4. "i4u". i4u. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  5. AT&T the exclusive carrier Archived 2013-03-15 at the Wayback Machine Garmin official site
  6. Garmin-Asus. "Garmin-Asus Introduces nüvifone™ M20". garmin.com. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  7. Pocket Picks: Garmin-Asus impresses with its M20 navigation meets smartphone Archived March 7, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. Garmin-Asus. "A50". garmin.com. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  9. Gizmodo Australia (26 July 2010). "Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50 Navigating To Optus Next Month". gizmodo.com.au. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  10. Garmin to stop offering cell phones Archived October 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
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