Garmin shows off their new Nuviphone — a surprise product clearly targeted at the iPhone set. The product is due to ship this summer.
Seems like a shrewd move by Garmin. Garmin owns the small GPS market, and their Nuvi line is wonderfully executed and designed. But with GPS coming to more and more cell phones Garmin had to do something. Instead of running away or ignoring an encroaching reality, they ran head on into the smartphone space. To me this signals great management and leadership at Garmin.
Technically it has a few things the iPhone doesn’t have (yet). True GPS, 3G, and geotagging of photos taken with the camera. It also has Garmin’s million points of interest database built in which is great for finding local businesses, phone numbers, and addresses.
No details on size, weight, battery life, or price. And who knows how well the web browser works or how well the different pieces are integrated into the overall flow and experience. There are so many intangibles that it’s impossible to know if it’s good or bad before trying it, but from what little I see I like what I see.
Aside from Apple, Garmin is the only company I’ve seen that understands UI design for small devices. The Nuvi is dead simple to use. If they can translate their GPS UI chops into a phone UI, they may be on to something big. Someone is going to make a product that is considered the official alternative to the iPhone, and Garmin is well positioned to claim that title.
Good competition is a good thing.
RELATED: My review of the Nuvi 350 (the most commented on SvN post ever with 812 comments).
Matt Brown
on 31 Jan 08I bought my Dad a Garmin GPS unit for X-mas and he had that thing figured out ON HIS OWN, in about 15 minutes… which says a lot on how easy the UI is to use. It will be interesting to see how this phone turns out.
Anonymous Coward
on 31 Jan 08Hrm, was getting ready to pop for an iPhone but may wait and see how this thing is instead. Summer is so far off though… And summer really means winter after the delays are factored in…
Christian Lupp
on 31 Jan 08I agree, Jason: It’s the right strategic step for Garmin. And we all can hope that this will speed up innovations in the mobile smartphone world. But I think it’s a tough way they have to go to enter the smartphone market successfully. Garmin may have a strong standing in the UI but they will need to cope with the other platforms on the application side. So there are three fronts they are facing: - Apple with their iPhone as an integrated solution, design gadget and an developer sdk for the mac os x based OS coming at the end of february – and more and more websites which have optimized interfaces for the iPhone – like CampFire ;-). - Google and the openhandsetalliance with their coming mobile “android” OS who want to stimulate the developer community with their open source initiative. They do not support Ruby yet … but let us see what the future brings us. - Not to forget tNokia with their >40% market share … they also try to push their Series60 OS devices with capabilities like writing apps in Python. But let’s see Garmin may surprise us again.
Mike
on 31 Jan 08The Garmin phone will only be as good as the telecom conglomerate that decides to carry it. If Verizon, Sprint, etc. put restrictions on the features or nickle and dime everything you try to do with the phone, then it is just another phone. The iPhone’s brilliance is not only the phone itself but the hands-off that Apple was able to negotiate with ATT.
I own a Garmin 205 watch I use for running, I absoultely love it. It’s rock solid and works flawlessly.
Anonymous Coward
on 31 Jan 08I suspect Garmin may go unlocked with this one. That would be a smart move to counter Apple. It’s one of the things Apple can’t do so Garmin might as well do it.
Martin
on 31 Jan 08I wonder if we end up with special versions of webapps for every new capable gadget there will be released or if there will be something smarter.
Phil
on 31 Jan 08What a horrible name… all I can think of is this: http://www.nuvaring.com/
Gerard Byrne
on 31 Jan 08Garmin are doing this for the same reason Apple did the iPhone. This is life or death.
In Apple’s case, there was the inevitability of convergence between mobile phones and MP3 players. This was only going to happen once somebody “did it right”. So Apple, quite correctly, wanted to be the key player in the merged category. Well done to Apple because one would have thought it would be easier to glue an MP3 player to a phone rather than the other way around.
Garmin are facing the same extinction battle. GPS is moving to the handset. Perhaps it is going to take a few years but the merger of GPS and mobile phones is as inevitable as night following day. Somebody will win – and somebody will lose.
Personally, I would have thought that Garmin would have been better to be the enabler for mobile co (e.g. Nokia or LG). They certainly have balls and the product is not bad at all.
The other market on a collision course with mobiles is, of course, the consumer-grade camera. Nokia claim to be the biggest digital camera manufacturer in the world.
Barring some real surprise from Android (and I really don’t see that platform producing the goods for 2-3 years – at least in any significant volume) – Apple are in prime position to really take a serious position in the handset business.
The only thing between Apple and success at this time is the (IMHO) idiotic partnership exclusives and revenue share deals. The networks will be married to Apple only until there are viable alternatives. With the recent speculation that upwards of 1M iPhones have been unlocked (despite the fact that this is not a simple process) Apple should be getting the message – let the baby go free! Ship it in and let the networks subsidise it down to $100-$200 RRP with tariff plan.
Killian
on 31 Jan 08Tom Tom makes an even better GPS UI than Garmin. They don’t have as much US marketshare, but they offer free traffic updates and retouting. As a kicker you can get Mr T, Homer Simpson, or Yoda to give you the turn by turn directions.
“Arrived at your Destination, you are” “Mr. T says turn around fool”
hell yea
Ed Knittel
on 01 Feb 08The iPhone will be 3G by the time this thing comes out. You’re saying “summer” but that conflicts with Wired saying “fall”. Maybe winter? With Google Maps on the iPhone and the fact that Apple is opening the iPhone up to developers (oh, you didn’t hear? Garmin isn’t releasing an SDK which means only the Big Boys can play) I have no doubt that we’ll see some very cool GPS functionality on the iPhone.
At this point the Nuviphone is nothing more then some pretty pictures and a lot of talk. We should be careful before looking at it as anything other than that.
Dillon
on 01 Feb 08wonder if it will support flash
Jean-Pierre Bobbaers
on 01 Feb 08Hi Jason,
I own Garmin stuff since the early ‘90s to find my way in African adventures and also in UrbanBrussels ;-)
As you point out in your book and businesweek http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_47/b3960428.htm, about the swiss knife and specific tools that carpenters use.
I believe that Garmin will do a great job for GPS lovers better then Apple. And Apple will do a better job for music lovers with the Ipod.
And some people will be content with a swiss knife… But the interface will decide what brand to choose !
Chad
on 01 Feb 08I really want to be excited by the Nuviphone, but the media gallery looks like a collection of early design mockups. Are there any real photos of this thing?
Moleman
on 01 Feb 08I am in the position of waiting to see how this thing turns out, I also am waiting for Nokia’s new N95i to arrive in NZ, and playing the waiting game with how the iphone turns out, but the GPS feature is going to win this race, so if apple continues to upgrade, they may just win.
BusinessMan
on 01 Feb 08I would have bought an IPhone, but ATT and Apple do not allow to use the phone with corporate accounts, so I didn’t bought one. If I don’t have that restriction for the Nuviphone I’ll get one, and you can bet many business people will jump at it too.
BTW, in my company of over 50,000 employees, that was the main reason why nobody bought an Iphone, now we have another. Good GPS, slim phone, and Google apps, why do I want the other one for..
Smart move
on 04 Feb 08lots of people think that Garmin (GRMN) is just selling the Nuvi for in car GPS, but never forget that a good portion of Airplanes are equipt with the GARMIN 1000 GPS…..Garmin is diversified enought that adding a Cell phone sector may be a big hit.
RJ
on 05 Feb 08All I have to say is, the first company that offers an iPhone experience on the Verizon network will have my undying gratitude and loyalty.
I can’t wait 4 years for the exclusive apple/att deal to end, I can’t leave my entire family on Verizon, I can’t afford a separate phone plan for the iPhone, and I can’t live without a web browser and email in my pocket.
The iPhone has ruined me, but thanks to my situation with Verizon I’m stuck drooling over everyone elses.
This discussion is closed.