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Not your mother's Garmin or Nokia
Tech companies start to cross-pollinate, entering new competitive turf
 Garmin-Asus Garmin, known for its GPS devices, and Asus, known for its netbooks, are teaming up to make smartphones with location-based services at their core, according to the companies. |
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Tech companies known as leaders in their own worlds — routers, phones, GPS — are starting to move into other already crowded fields at a time when consumer tech spending is down. It’s a risk, but one worth taking, some say, with consumers benefiting from the increased competition.
“The companies doing this are market leaders in their spaces and are looking to expand, both to increase their relationship with the customer and to expand their branding,” said Ross Rubin, the NPD Group’s director of industry analysis for consumer technology.
Shawn DuBravac, director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry trade group, said companies are trying to “leverage their expertise, add to their bottom line and come out with innovative products that can really be game-changers in a space that’s relatively new to them.”
Garmin, known for its variety of GPS devices, for example, will work with Asus on two mobiles, the nuvifone G60 and nuvifone M20, smartphones “designed with location-based services” at their core, according to Garmin.
Computer makers Acer, H-P, Lenovo and Toshiba may also develop their own handsets.
Garmin and Asus say the nuvifone M20, for example, will have “the navigation capability of a premium Garmin” device, and come with “preloaded maps and points of interest — hotels, restaurants, stores, fuel stations and more.”
Asus, known more in the United States for its line of netbooks, which are low-cost, ultraportable laptops, also makes phones sold in nearly two dozen countries, said Garmin spokeswoman Jessica Myers.
The pairing also makes sense because the two companies have “similar corporate philosophies,” she said.
'Void in smartphone space'
But with so many cell phone brands and models to choose from, do consumers need or want yet another?
“We see a void in the smartphone space in terms of a product that can seamlessly tie together navigation with smartphone capabilities,” said Myers.
Some smartphones, she said, “have navigation as a third-party (add-on) application. The nuvifone weaves navigation into all aspects — contacts, e-mail, calendar, social networking, taking a photograph, Web browsing, navigation and more.”
The phones will be sold in the United States, as well as other countries, later this year. Myers said the company has not yet announced a carrier or pricing in the U.S.
Perhaps the timing for such a product is good. ABI Research said Monday “the once-booming personal navigation device market is grinding to a halt in 2009 with little or no growth expected in most regions.”
However, the firm noted, “at the same time, handset-based navigation is gaining momentum,” boosted, in part, “by a wave of high-profile touchscreen GPS smartphone launches.”
“Apple, as a leader in the MP3 space, moved into the phone space because of the competitive threat to the iPod” from phones that could play digital music, said Rubin. Garmin, he said, is taking similar action.
“Garmin has been a leader in the portable navigation device space, and there’s a growing threat to that market from smartphones. By partnering with Asus, it can expand into the cell phone market while minimizing the investment risk.”
For Asus, the benefit is “taking advantage of Garmin’s location-based service expertise,” which can help computer maker be better positioned to take advantage of location-based services in mobile devices such as its netbooks.
By doing this, Asus “gains access to a lot of understanding about how consumers use electronic maps and electronic navigation,” said Rubin.
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