Watch out for Garmin's new iPhone rival known as nüvifone! Known best for its GPS mapping gizmos, Garmin held a press conference this past Wednesday that showcased how they will be getting into the cell phone market.Dubbed the nüvifone, it actually may look familiar to iPhone users since it has the same sized touchscreen display and form factor and it's used as the sole controls for the phone. Just like the iPhone, the only other controls are Power and Volume. The nüvifone will feature Wi-FI, ACC/MP3 audio, MPEG-4 Video and a web browser. Sound familiar?
Now why would anyone buy this over an iPhone from Apple? Garmin is betting that folks would rather have one thing that the iPhone doesn't: a true GPS unit built in.While the iPhone software update has triangulation software built in to give an estimate to where the user is, there is no true GPS for the current crop of iPhones. The Garmin version will work in Ameria and Europe and have a true GPS receiver built right in that will be able to communicate with Google for further information. The built in camera will geotag all photos captured.
There are a few other things that Garmin's Nüvifone has that the iPhone doesn't: video capture, faster 3G cellular internet, MMS messaging for sending photos and videos to other cell phones.
John Gruber of DaringFireball originally was excitied about the idea of a true competitor to the iPhone but upon close examination of their screenshot gallery had this to say:
"Upon further examination, I'm getting a much stronger vaporware vibe from this. For something due by September, they're awfully short on details. Their screenshot gallery is entirely comprised of mockups, not actual screenshots or photos from an actual prototype. (Unless the Nüviphone is going to pack a 1400 × 795 display, which is pretty unlikely.) When Apple pre-announced the iPhone six months in advance, they had real screenshots and actual prototype hardware. No word at all on how you type, what OS the device is using, Mac/PC connectivity or synching, or what rendering engine the web browser users. Whole things smells less-than-half-baked. Update: Engadget has "hands-on" photos, but none with the prototype turned, you know, on.In my mind, Garmin's Nüvifone will have to catch up to whatever Apple has ALREADY got in the bag for iPhone v2.0 and other iPhone related products. The Nüvifone may attract some that want a different phone, but I'm confident that iPhone 2 will simply be the next revolutionary version of the iPhone and will send Garmin back to the drawing board again.
Garmin also seems to be implicitly encouraging direct comparison to the iPhone and Apple: the hardware is obviously iPhone-esque; the screenshot mockups are entirely set in Myriad (the iPhone uses Helvetica, of course, but Myriad is Apple's branding font); and even the name, "Nüvifone", contains the substring "ifone"."
To be honest iphone's gps is lacking. I don't think anyone will come up with a true rival to the iphone for at least a couple of years. Though once they do I bet apple will just come out with something that much better.