Manufacturer Garmin Form factor Candybar Smartphone Display 3.5 in, color LCD | Availability by country 10/4/2009 (AT&T) Data inputs touchscreen | |
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Compatible networks Quad-band GSM
GPRS/EDGE
HSDPA | ||
The Garmin Nüvifone is a line of Internet-enabled mobile phone and personal navigation devices manufactured by a partnership between Garmin and Asus. It makes use of a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and buttons. The product was announced on January 30, 2008 and only a prototype (presumably not fully functional) was available at the time.
Nüvifone is a 3G hybrid handset that can be docked into a vehicle mount. Once snapped onto the vehicle mount, it can automatically kick in the embedded GPS navigation and simultaneously enable hands-free calls. It is featured with a geotagging built-in camera that can help recipients of the geocoded photograph trace to where the photos were taken.
According to the first press release by Garmin, it was expected to be made available to market in the third quarter of 2008. A later speculation pointed to the second half of 2009.
In February 2009 it was announced that the Nüvifone would be launched as the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone G60, as part of a series of forthcoming Garmin-Asus Nüvifone devices. AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the Nüvifone.
The next device in the series was the Garmin-Asus Nüvifone M20. This has a 640x480 pixel VGA touchscreen, runs Windows Mobile 6.1, offers triband GSM/EGPRS + HSPA and WiFi connectivity, plus an accelerometer, a 3MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM and 4GB (8GB in some territories) of storage. The processor is a Qualcomm 7200A chip operating at 528 MHz. It also links into Garmin’s Ciao! location-based social networking application.
In 2010, Garmin announced it will stop making nüvifones altogether.