Garmin Nuvifone 2.0 – The road it should travel

The long-awaited Garmin Nuvifone has arrived, and it may be too late. When Garmin puffed out its chest a year ago that it was boldly entering the smart-phone arena with a touchscreen device that promised to navigate as well as a PND, it seemed quite exciting. After all, most cell phones offered just server-based navigation solutions for a fee that were wrought with compromises and the mighty iPhone did not have turn-by-turn navigation.. Oh, how the world has changed in the months since. (See our full Garmin Nuvifone G60 review.)
 
As we have chronicled over the summer, Navigon withdrew from the portable navigation device (PND) market in the United States to focus its efforts on software, and it delivered one of the first nav apps for the iPhone. TomTom diversified its portfolio with an increased emphasis on connected PNDs and the most ambitious iPhone nav solution to date, complete with a receiver- and speaker-fitted cradle. And Garmin? Oh, they are just bringing to market what would have been big stuff last year.
 
In fairness, Garmin continues to evolve its PNDs, but the Nuvifone is underwhelming and mistimed. We have completed our testing, and while the Nuvifone G60 provides excellent basic guidance, it is expensive and short on features. On the business side, the most unfortunate element is that it will be sold alongside the iPhone; both devices are sold exclusively through AT&T. Adding further insult, AT&T ranks low in most cities in our latest cell-service ratings.
 
At an AT&T store, a customer can choose from the $300 Nuvifone G60 (factoring a $100 rebate) with 4GB of memory or an iPhone 3GS with 16 GB for $200. For that price, the Nuvifone includes a mount and nav software. Both devices need a car charger. But the iPhone has the app store, with several good applications to choose from, with prices ranging from $5 to $100. And we have seen these apps improve rapidly, providing free upgrades to customers. Plus, there are a few thousand other cool apps readily available, as well.
 
The Nuvifone of tomorrow
What I’d like to see is Garmin rapidly move the Nuviphone into a unique niche, tapping its broad GPS-device experience and appeal to its core, active-lifestyle customer base.
 
My recipe for surviving in this obscenely competitive market:

• The Nuvifone needs to not mimic the basic Nuvi 265, but the Nuvi 885T. Aim high. Throw in all the software features like reality view, then go further with voice recognition.
• Having add-on maps for other countries is nice, but the core Garmin audience is in the United States. Port over maps for hiking with topography and blue water maps, as illustrated above.
• Offer a ruggedized version that is water and scratch resistant.
• Embrace geographic-based social networking with Ciao!, as on some other recent Garmin devices.
• Push geocaching to the next level, tying together the “guided tour” concept explored on other devices, with geo-tagging. Geocache instructions could include tagged images as clues, and the electronic treasure hunts can be larger in scale.
  
• Tie into sports, allowing data to be gathered, transferred, and shared with running, bicycle, and motorcycle-focused devices.
• Develop an add-on application for measuring automotive performance, such as acceleration and braking. Bonus points for an OBDII code reader, especially a wireless system that uses a Bluetooth transmitter.
• Sell the Nuvifone with other carriers with better service and thereby eliminate the side-by-side comparison with the iPhone in stores.

Where the iPhone benefits from the creative third-party software developers, Garmin can leverage its internal strengths. There is no larger consumer-focused GPS company in the United States. Garmin is the Microsoft of GPS, and the Nuvifone is its Zune (MP3 player). In this sector, Gamin runs the risk of being outdone by Apple in like fashion.

Well, that's my take. What do you think Gamin could do to compete?

  —Jeff Bartlett

See our reviews of AT&T Navigator, iGo My Way, Gokivo, Navigon Mobile Navigator, Sygic Mobile Maps, TomTom iPhone application, and X Road G-Map for iPhone.

For more information on portable automotive GPS navigation systems, see our Ratings, first looks, and buying advice and watch our video guide. Discuss GPS devices in the forums.

Comments

[Rob]

The G60 is built on a custom Linux distribution by Garmin and ASUS. This is the first problem. I read that Garmin and ASUS have decided that future models will use Windows Mobile and Google's Android. That's a big start to making them more competitive, however in an ironic twist, devices based on Windows Mobile or Android could theoretically run any GPS software. And to me at least, that's the real problem.

I agree that Garmin could differentiate it's models by making them waterproof, rubberized, and generally tougher. But this is a niche market only. It certainly doesn't put a nuviphone up there with HTC, let alone the iPhone.

All of the new phones with integrated GPS are ultimately going to push Garmin into accepting the inevitable - when it comes to integrated phone/GPS, they can't compete by using their own hardware. They're going to have to accept that they'll be competing with TomTom, Navigon, Oncourse, etc. On that note; what they really need is to adjust their strategy towards making the best, most feature-rich, and most "integrated" GPS software for iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Google Android.

That means focusing on value-add GPS features. Like you pointed out, social networking and OBDII integration are good, but they can also improve their traffic capabilities, leverage broadband wireless for map updates and additional map layers such as satellite-imagery (like Google Maps) weather, flight tracking, etc. And they can use that OBDII coupled with data connectivity to come up with fuel usage information that show a user not only the shortest route by time or by distance, but also by fuel used.

Lots of stuff they can do, but the primary focus here is on innovation executed in software. They're never going to be able to supplant or even reasonably compete with iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Android.

[Jalan]

What does Garmin need to do to compete? First, they need to quite thinking like a hardware company and start thinking like a software company. If Garmin thinks they customers will be dictated as to their smartphone and their cell carrier just to get Garmin GPS functionality, they are nuts.

Garmin needs to become a consumer software company and develop unbeatable solutions that are smartphone and carrier agnostic. Take a cue from ALK CoPilot v8 and develop a killer app that will run on Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android and then load us up with Garmin innovation and features like no other company can.

This obsession by Garmin that everything they do has to come to the consumer in a piece of hardware with their name on it is nuts. They are out of touch.

Garmin is either completely out of touch with the market today, or utterly arrogant. Did they really think that customers would flock to a proprietary smartphone with no history and no 3rd party developer support? Who in their right mind would consider this device when, for the same price, they can buy an iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile phone and install CoPilot, Navigon or TomTom? You get navigation plus a real smartphone with a massive 3rd party application community.

Two years ago Garmin might have pulled this off. That is, though, before they started producing PND's that were full of bugs. And that was before they started to alienate their customer base by putting out more PND models than anyone could keep track off, and stopping the distribution of new features through software updates to older units. There are only so many "new" customers Garmin. Eventually, Garmin has to sell to return customers and believe me, we remember what they pulled by releasing the "top of the line" 885T and then not given us EcoRoute or 3D buildings in it. That is one of many examples.

They let Navigon and TomTom beat them in innovation (i.e. IQRoutes), and then further disappointed by losing their reputation for quality and rock solid performance.

Then they come out with a connected PND and fail to innovate by only giving us one-way traffic communication. The Garmin PND's aren't even traffic probes. Meanwhile Inrix and Google are building probe data from smartphone users.

I've owned 7 Garmin devices over the last 10 years and the 885T will be my last. I am greatly enjoying my CoPilot Live v8 installation on my HTC Touch Pro 2. I picked the phone and I picked the carrier. ALK come to ME. Garmin wasn't even a choice because they can't stop being focused on hardware.

These guys are clueless.

[ST]

Problem is that they make all their money from hardware. All very well saying 'focus on s/w' but that market (s/w) is a tiny fraction of what they're used to in size terms. Still this is the correct long-term solution- focus on software and fire a large amount of employees over the next 8 years (90% of autmotoive employees). Can't blame them for trying though- they KNOW they're in trouble!! This is what big companies do when they up the creek- they spend all their money trying not to drown. That is why their share price (p.e. ratio) is so pathetic- the investor community understand this.
Garmin will never know how to deal with developers in the way of MS/Google/Apple. I know - I work with all 4 inc Garmin. I would estimate their understanding of content and partnership and development community at sub 1% of any of the others. Not even joking...couple of people in the developer teams TOTAL.
They might survive if they adopt Android. But I doubt it (1. that they CAN do that and 2. that it would help anyway). $2.5bn of their turnover ($3.5bn)- 70% of their entire business is automotive. Ouch. This is a company for which there are no happy endings- they are simply going to get smaller and smaller in the same way they have grown rapidly on the back of in-car navigation. Focusing on software is no real solution- bear this in mind; TomTom was a company of <60 people when it focused on navigation software- then they want into hardware and turned into a massive company of 2,000 people. The point is this; the software market is not big and certainly can't support big companies like Garmin and TomTom.

[Tim Pease]

Jeff, I believe you hit on a lot of good points in this article. For the price Garmin wants, this device should do a whole lot more than what they are advertising. I would also like to know if this is the subsidized price. If it is, then it stands NO chance to compete with the iPhone or the droids that are coming. I believe Garmin should cut their losses now and get back to making quality stand-alone units.