14 DAY TRIAL // Garmin Ltd. and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. announced that they have recently formed a strategic alliance that will allow them to design, manufacture and distribute mobile phones. The two companies already started to work on the development of a range of new handsets, which will come to the market as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone series. The two announced that several devices were expected to be launched this year, and that they planned on announcing a new Garmin-Asus nüvifone model at the Mobile World Congress this month in Barcelona.
“We believe that converged devices are an emerging opportunity,” said Dr. Min Kao, chairman and CEO of Garmin Ltd. “This alliance is advantageous to both companies because it allows us to combine our resources and establish a strong foundation from which we will innovate and introduce the world to the benefits of LBS-centric mobile phones. We've been working with ASUS for over one year on the initial nüvifone that was announced in 2008 on the basis of an ODM relationship.”
Mr. Min Kao continued by saying that “Learning from this experience, we concluded that by leveraging and combining our respective industry-leading areas of expertise at a higher level, we will be able not only to significantly expand our product line, but also to shorten our product development time. We believe that through this strategic alliance we are uniquely positioned to deliver the world's best integrated and most compelling GPS-enabled mobile devices.”
The two companies also stated that all Garmin-Asus nüvifone devices would preserve the product vision of the original model while being LBS-centric devices providing seamless connectivity, communication and navigation capabilities. The original nüvifone launched in 2008 was re-branded as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60. The new handset should come to the market in the first half of this year, but the two will announce more details at the MWC show.
“This alliance allows ASUS and Garmin to seamlessly combine the strengths of both companies to offer market leading mobile phone solutions that are of the best design and highest quality. ASUS and Garmin both believe strongly in the continuous investment of R&D resources to unfailingly provide leading-edge innovations to people and businesses,” said Jonney Shih, CEO of ASUSTeK Computer Inc. “Through this alliance, our companies will continue to develop innovations that simplify life. Our technologies should accommodate our customers, not the other way around. We believe all devices should perform and communicate seamlessly not just anytime and anyplace, but in real time, in real places, and we're confident the nüvifone series will meet this objective.”
The Garmin-Asus nüvifone series will be based on LBS functionality, offering turn-by-turn and voice-prompted features, like the high-end Garmin portable navigation devices (PND) include. The nüvifone is expected to sport both preloaded maps and a wide range of interest points, as well as fast access to more online points of interest. Moreover, the handset will feature Ciao!, a social networking application meant to integrate multiple location-based networks at the same time.
More information on the newly formed alliance and on future Garmin-Asus nüvifone models can be found on the Garmin-Asus website.