Garmin GPS Smartphone Delayed Until 2009

Garmin's nüvifone, a GPS-enabled quasi-smartphone, has been delayed until some time in the first half of 2009.

A Garmin executive mentioned the nüvifone's rollback as part of an announcement that the company's revenue had fallen $600 million short of analyst expectations for the quarter, which sent stock shares down almost 22%.

The executive attributed up to $100 million of the revenue shortfall to the failure to launch the nüvifone as planned in the third quarter of this year.

The nüvifone, while not running an established smartphone platform, is marketed as a combination semi-smartphone and personal navigation device that also provides Internet access, music, and video playback.

An Overview of the nüvifone

The nüvifone will be Garmin's first GSM featurephone designed to take advantage of its GPS knowledge. It will feature a large touchscreen, GPS receiver, and built-in maps.

It will be the replacement for this company's line of GPS-enabled Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds. Because it will offer a constant 3G connection to the Internet, this device will offer features not available in this company's earlier models, such as real-time traffic and fuel prices.

This will be more than just a navigation device. The nüvifone will have a web browser, messaging application, multimedia options, and a camera.

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