Like Grandpa reminiscing about the war…we remember the time Garmin promised to slay the iPhone with their souped up nuviphone. Well ten months down the line and half a dozen challengers later it’s finally getting released.
Unveiled way back in January 08 the Garmin nuviphone should have been the original ‘iPhone killer’ but delay after delay have pushed the once promising looking handset to the back of the pack behind BlackBerry, LG, T-Mobile and HTC.
With RIM predicting the demise of the sat nav you’d think Garmin would have been gagging to get into the mobile game. Looking back at the nuviphone specs – 3.5in touchscreen, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Google local search and bundles of sat-nav goodness – it’d have easily held its own as the original ‘iPhone Killer’ if only they’d released the thing before the world caught up.
Now we could be wrong, and the nuviphone could be the tortoise to win the touchscreen race, but with GPS almost as standard on smartphones and a small matter of the T-Mobile G1 to contend with we’re not holding our breath.
Unless there has been some serious tinkering under the bonnet, and a drop in the original $500 price tag, Garmin’s first handset might disappear without a trace.
Out 1H 09 | £TBC | Garmin (via PC Mag)
