Garmin Nuvifone Delayed Until 2009

July 30, 2008 in Garmin

GPS juggernaut - Garmin - released their 2008 quarterly report, most of which highlighted impressive financial growth and gains. Among all the percentages and dollar signs was the disappoiting announcement that the Garmin Nuvifone, Garmin’s first foray into the mobile phone market, wouldn’t be available until 2009.

Here is an excerpt from the Quarterly Report:

“The nuvifone will not be available in fourth quarter as previously announced. While we had hoped to have carrier launches in the fourth quarter, we have found that meeting some of the carrier specific requirements will take longer than anticipated. We remain pleased with carrier interest in the device and are working toward making necessary design changes to meet their requirements. We anticipate launching the product during the first half of 2009.”

When the Nuvifone was initially announced it was slated for the 3rd quarter of 2008. It was then delayed until the 4th quarter of 2008. The move to 2009 is arguably more painful as GPS devices and Mobile Phones are both electronics on the holiday shopping list. The Nuvifone could have been a hot holiday product, but instead, will be competing with additional Android devices that will likely have GPS Navigation via 3rd party applications.

I wonder which carrier’s they’re working with and what specific design changes need to be altered to fit the carrier’s requirements. That information probably won’t leak out… but we’ll keep you posted with anythiing extra we find… including more specific details concerning the Nuvifone’s release date.

By the way, Garmin posted a 23% quarter-to-quarter increase in revenue and YTD revenue up 28% compared to last year’s pace. The company has already $1.58 billion of business this year.

[Via CrunchGear]

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