14 DAY TRIAL // Asustek seems to have trouble in selling its flagship Android device, the Garminfone, through T-Mobile operator. According to a report by analyst Yair Reiner, the Taiwanese company only managed to sell around 20,000 Garminfone smartphones in the US since April. The research conducted by Reiner concerned 50 T-Mobile stores, where retail checks have been done.
"Before the product launched, many sales associates spoke with enthusiasm about the device, stating it had by far the best navigation functionality of any mobile phone," Reiner said in his research note. "However, even several days after release, many stores had not yet put the handset out on display, which was probably not very beneficial for sales. Others had not sold any despite displays being set up and several sold a few (less than 5). As of the beginning of this week stores have yet to show any meaningful sales numbers with maybe five sold on average per store since launch."
Although the research seems to be well documented, Asustek officials immediately denied these reports of poor sales of its device and stated that shipments of the Garminfone smartphone to T-Mobile were going as previously planned, but didn't offer any numbers. Furthermore, the company stated that its device had received positive demand from the consumer market and had no reason to be worried about sale drops in the near future.
Moreover, a T-Mobile official said that the network operator would start offering the Garminfone for 129 USD after a 50 USD mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, starting with July 7. The Taiwanese firm tried to establish a foothold on the US market by selling its main Android device through one of the major network operators, T-Mobile. Unfortunately, setting the official launching date very close to Apple's iPhone announcement at Verizon wasn't such a good idea.