Garmin Nuvifone...fresh start

Garmin, one of the leading mobile navigation solution provider in the US had released information sometime back related to its entry into the ever emerging and crowded mobile phone market. They plan to enter with their newly announced phone called Nuvifone. Initially i was quite surprised and was not sure what to expect from this new device but it seems these guys might have something good up their sleeve. Either it will be a big disappointment or it might bring fresh new perspective in the mobile phone market. I would love too see new phones that revolutionize the way we interact with our mobile devices. This is why I'm always excited whenever i see some new/old company trying to launch their new product with the hope that they might bring some fresh perspective. iPhone has no doubt brought that fresh perspective but we would like to see more such new concepts. So i hope Garmin Nuvifone has something new for us.

Initial previews suggest that the Properitery Garmin OS is pretty snappy and responsive. Also it gives the impression of using a Garmin GPS device with the ability of a phone, so essentially it is a GPS Phone. Looks feature rich with 3MP Camera, Accelerometer, 3.5'' screen. Also the highlights seem to be Goggle Local Search feature which based on the current location of the user would display the sorted list of point of interest from the web. Being a GPS Phone it naturally inherits features of regular GPS and also access to Gramin's online features like real time traffic information, weather information, news reports, fuel prices, sport scores etc.

When docked in the car, this device will switch to GPS mode and enable hands free for attending calls. It will also have rich multimedia support and email. It has no buttons on the front but on the sides, so OS supposed to provide stylus free operation. Some detail specifications are mentioned below.

It was supposed to be released during Q4 2008 but now it seems to be postponed till Q1 2009 due to carrier compatibility issues. Also it will be available by AT&T for around $500 with a data plan.

Garmin Nuvifone Specification

1. 3.5" Single Touch Screen
2. Triband 3.5G and Quadband GSM
3. WiFi
4. Garmin Properitery UI
5. Email, SMS and IM
6. Bluetooth with EDR
7. 2GB Internal Memory
8. 3MP Camera with Geotagging
   
9. Expandable Memory thru microSDHC support(speculation)
10. Garmin Online Access
11. GPS with preloaded North America and Europe maps.
    

Videos
Here is initial video preview of this new device.