Garmin officially ventures into brand handset market

Garmin Corp., the world's leading vendor of own-brand GPS (global positioning system) devices, unveils its first handset, Nuvifone, as its groundbreaking move to officially venture into the global market for own-brand mobile phones. Nuvifone is reportedly supplied by Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc. on an ODM (original design manufacturing) basis, according to company sources.

Garmin last year sold 13 million units of GPS devices worldwide for a 23% share of the global market, unseating Tom Tom and MiTAC as world's largest GPS brand in the year. Roger Jollis, director of Garmin's Mobility & OEM Marketing, said that Nuvifone is scheduled to be officially launched in North America in the fourth quarter of this year, in cooperation with AT&T, a top-three telecom company in the market.

Also, Garmin will debut Nuvifone in Taiwan at the end of this year, and is contacting Taiwanese telecom companies, including Chunghwa Telecom Company, for cooperation. The brand will focus promotion of the phone in high-end phone and niche markets , fending off cutting-throat competition against HTC's HTC Diamond, Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Omnia. The new phone is a GPS phone, featuring 300-megapixel camera, 3.5G communication technology and WiFi wireless broadband network function.

Roger Jollis stressed that his company has hammered out a blueprint to venture into the handset markets for the next three years, and planned to launch new phones for business people.

However, before debuting the own-brand GPS phone, Garmin has worked with Nokia and Samsung on developing the products for a long time, and its recent move may put an end to their partnership, industry insiders worried. Besides, Nokia and Samsung's aggressive foray into the GPS market may also threaten Garmin's leading position in the future.

On the other hand, Roger Jollis revealed that since deciding to develop own-brand GPS phones two years ago, Garmin has actively invited a Taiwanese supplier to participate in the development, and finally placed its ODM order with the supplier.

source & copyright: CENS