Garmin ships true GPS phone

September 29, 12:02 PMGadgets ExaminerDan Appleman

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Garmin G60 nuvifone GPS+Phone

Garmin today announced availability of its long awaited nuvifone G60 product through AT&T wireless on October 4th. What makes this product unique is that Garmin has taken the opposite approach of other phone vendors. While many phones provide GPS capability, it is typically an add-on feature that works through the cell phone network. This means you typically have to pay a monthly subscription, and the response time is sometimes less than ideal – as maps are continuously being downloaded from the network. In fact, the GPS feature stops working when you have no reception. As an add-on application, the GPS features are typically not integrated into other phone features – for example: pictures you take are probably not geotagged, if you look up a location using your web browser, you can’t immediately navigate to it, etc.

The nuvifone is actually a full featured GPS with a phone added. With built-in maps and a sensitive GPS receiver, it is designed first and foremost for auto navigation (though it does include a pedestrian mode that is good for walking or geocaching). As such, location based features such as tagging photos are built-in. No navigation subscription is required (though you do have to pay a subscription fee for real-time traffic and navigation features).

The phone will be available through AT&T for $299 with a 2-year plan. Pricing without a plan is not yet announced, but based on today’s prices on EBay for an unlocked phone, it will likely be in the $700-$800 range (plus an extra $60 for North American Maps, as the EBay phones typically come with Taiwanese maps).

With pricing of a high end GPS running in the $400-$500 range, the $299 price for a GPS+Phone combination is worth a serious look for those considering a new 2-year plan anyway. Frequent travelers might want to pick up the unlocked version of the phone – as a true world phone (quad band), it will work with SIM cards worldwide (and should work well with low cost prepaid plans such as AT&T’s GoPhone for those who don’t want or need a full plan).

Others may wish to wait a bit. Prices are likely to come down with time and increased competition. Plus the G60 is expected to be followed by a series of additional GPS phones from Garmin-Asus that will be based on other technologies (the Garmin-Asus Windows Mobile based G20 being one example).