Garmin's second-quarter results hit the wires this week, and overall, the company seems to be pretty healthy; its automotive, outdoor, aviation, and marine businesses all posted growth, average selling price was up, and shipped units grew a solid 8 percent year-over-year. If you read a little deeper, though, there's one segment that undelivered -- smartphones, a joint venture the company shares with ASUS -- which contributed $27 million in revenue in the last three months. $27 million in profit would be business as usual for a division of a company of Garmin's size, but $27 million in revenue is a drop in the bucket -- and sure enough, the earnings report goes on to say that the performance was "below [its] plan." They go on to say that they're "working aggressively with T‐Mobile and other carriers around the globe on the appropriate positioning and pricing of our devices in the competitive smartphone space," interesting wording considering our shock at the Garminfone's initial pricing (and the fact that it's more recently come down to $130 for new subscribers). In Garmin's own words, the smartphone business is competitive to say the least -- you can't waltz in with an overpriced first-gen product and expect the world -- so it'll be interesting to see how they adjust going forward.

Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was 'below our plan' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View, Phone Arena  |  Garmin  | Email this | Comments

Chances are the closest you've come to hunting with a pooch is swearing at that giggle-happy mutt who shames your every miss in Duck Hunt. In the real world, dogs are sent out to flush game and track down new things to shoot at, often way out of sight. Garmin's Astro receiver, combined with the DC 30 collar tracker (pictured above), made it easy to keep the all seeing eye on your very own mutt even when miles away, and now the DC 40 makes it even easier. The DC 40 sports a redesign that should make it a more reliable companion, including a new charging connector that won't get clogged with mud. Also new is the ability to create a PIN so that other Astro users can't spy (and possibly even steal) your pooches. The Astro receiver can track up to 10 hounds at once at seven miles of range, and will even let hunters mark where their companions scurried up some prey for future reconnaissance. The price? Garmin isn't saying just yet, but the current DC 30 and Astro receiver package goes for $599, and we'd expect this to cost about the same, though the DC 40 collar unit itself is also said to be available separately if you just want to make sure your hound has the latest couture.

Update: Garmin was kind enough to send us a picture of the new DC 40, above.

Continue reading Garmin upgrades its doggone Astro tracking system with DC 40 collar GPS tracker

Garmin upgrades its doggone Astro tracking system with DC 40 collar GPS tracker originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The holy matrimony between smartphone and personal navigation device just keeps getting stronger, scorning dedicated GPS units like forgotten flings and leaving navigation-free handsets wandering lost and alone. Garmin-Asus has been flirting with the perfect bond with its Nuvifone series for some time now, but rather tragically from a branding perspective its strongest attempt yet comes without the nuvi moniker. It's the T-Mobile Garminfone, and its Android underpinnings go a long way toward making the best mix of PND and smartphone to date.

Continue reading Garmin-Asus Garminfone review

Garmin-Asus Garminfone review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

T-Mobile and Garmin-Asus have just gotten down to the nitty gritty with us on the long anticipated Garminfone: the phone ships in June for $199 on a two year contract. Just to show they're serious, they also let us play with the phone, which is running a speedy, heavily custom Garmin UI on top of Android. Check out some hands-on shots below, and stand by for more coverage of the handset as we get to cuddle up with it during some long, geotagged walks on the beach.

T-Mobile shipping the Garminfone for $199 in June, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

You ain't nobody if you don't have an Android handset (or two) these days, and Garmin-Asus has just added the A10 to its own stable of devices. It's a pretty humble 3.2-inch HVGA communicator, but it has a healthy 1,500mAh battery, a multitouch-friendly WebKit browser, and an autofocusing 5 megapixel camera with automatic geotagging. Coming with preloaded Garmin Navigation maps and software, the A10 eliminates the need for a web connection when looking up your local topography, and similarly retains turn-by-turn voice instructions while used offline. It's not altogether clear what the pedestrian optimizations are, aside from the public transport-aware cityXplorer maps, but in-car navigation is also obviously fully supported and encouraged. We're told to expect the A10 in mid-2010 for European and Asia-Pacific markets. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Garmin-Asus A10 brings pedestrian-optimized GPS to European and Asian Android lovers

Garmin-Asus A10 brings pedestrian-optimized GPS to European and Asian Android lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We've known that Garmin-Asus has been working on a phone with T-Mobile's 3G bands for a while, but now we finally know what it is: meet the Garminfone. Yes, just "Garminfone" -- you won't find an ounce of nuvifone branding here, despite the fact that the device is a dead ringer for the nuvifone A50 announced back at MWC, which leads us to believe that AT&T might hold the exclusive American rights to market the name with its own G60. Whatever the case may be, you can expect a 3 megapixel autofocus cam, microSD expansion up to 32GB, WiFi, and full HSPA alongside Garmin's own flavor of Android (currently based on 1.6, we believe) that emphasizes its nuvi-esque navigation capabilities on a 3.5-inch HVGA display. As you might expect, it'll come bundled with a charging dash / windshield mount (notice those gold connectors on the side of the phone) when it launches "later this Spring." Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading T-Mobile Garminfone official: Android, 3 megapixels, zero nuvi branding

T-Mobile Garminfone official: Android, 3 megapixels, zero nuvi branding originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  T-Mobile  | Email this | Comments

So, we had a few precious moments to play around with Garmin-Asus' latest Nuvifones here in lovely Barcelona today -- the M10 and A50, running on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and Android 1.6, respectively -- and even better, we did so in the back of a black Mercedes expressly purposed for testing out the integrated turn-by-turn capabilities. Follow the break for our quick impressions!

Continue reading Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 and A50 hands-on

Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 and A50 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We just heard about Garmin-Asus' WinMo 6.5.3-packin' M10 yesterday, and already the handset has been broken out for a photo shoot and hands-on review in Russia. The design itself isn't anything otherworldly, but we have to say -- we're kind of digging the user interface. Granted, we've a soft spot in our hearts for Garmin's nuvi line of PNDs, so anything remotely familiar gets a big thumbs-up 'round these parts. At any rate, critics noted that the phone was a pleasant mix of WinMo and nuvi, which is something that really sets it apart from other Windows Mobile-based offerings. There's nary a mention of exactly how awesome this thing would be with Windows Mobile 7, but if you're in no hurry to ponder the next big thing, give that source link a look.

Garmin-Asus nuvifone M10 gets handled, reviewed in the wilds of Russia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Hi-Tech  | Email this | Comments

When the Java programming language burst onto the scene in the mid-'90s, the mantra was "write once, run anywhere." Any Java coder will tell you that dream never quite became a reality, and while plenty have worked on ways to make Java code run like instructions specialized for this or the other family of processors, Nazomi Communications wants there to be only one: its way. The company was founded in the late '90s by Sun expatriates and created some processors capable of running compiled Java code natively. Now its biggest production is a lawsuit against Amazon, Microsoft, Nokia, Garmin, Sling, and others for patent infringement. Exactly which patent hasn't been made clear at this point, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's 6,332,215, the same one the company referenced when suing ARM back in 2007. Nazomi lost that suit (plus a subsequent appeal) and, given how much we dislike these annoying patent disputes from tiny, seemingly struggling companies (Nazomi currently has four whole employees according to LinkedIn), we're hopeful that all these lawsuits go away soon too.

Nazomi Communications makes friends by suing everyone you know originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  BusinessWeek  | Email this | Comments

Here's the WinMo-running M10 and Android-powered A50 both leaked in January. Problem is we still think they should get out of hardware and into apps.

But back to the phones. They're boasting it brings "more location technology than any other smartphone," as you'd expect from the satnav dudes at Garmin. The hardware isn't all that surprising, with a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen, a 3.0-megapixel camera with autofocus and geotagging, Bluetooth, 4GB of internal storage (with the usual microSD card slot) and an accelerometer. No word on Wi-Fi just yet.

Bundled with the phone is a car mount and power cable for the car, which is a nice touch—nothing worse than having to fork out for additional accessories after laying down a few hundred on the actual device. The software is, of course, Garmin's turn-by-turn navigation.

It'll go on sale sometime in the first six months of 2010—nice and vague—and the price hasn't been announced (or rumored, in the M10's case) just yet.

That aforementioned M10 (above) won't be showing up with Windows Mobile 7, launching instead with 6.5.3 (though presumably it'll be available for a software update once WinMo 7 launches at the end of the year). Specs sound just like they did when Asustek president Benson Lin blabbed last month about it, with the 3.5-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and the same again for ROM. Garmin and Asustek have chosen a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM 7227 chip which won't steal too many headlines, but at least it's running the most recent version of WinMo, eh? Again, wouldn't it be neat if you could get a Garmin app on a phone that was closer to 1GHz or on an iPhone?

The rumored price was $435 last month, but we'll keep you updated once we receive official word. [GSM Arena and BusinessWire]