“Garmin Ltd. said it would delay until next year the launch of its first device that combines a cellphone and GPS technology, and lowered its full-year outlook due to slower-than-expected growth in the GPS industry,” Shara Tibken reports for The Wall Street Journal.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, you don’t say?
Tibken continues, “Garmin said its closely watched Nuvifone handset – which provides users with the ability to make calls, connect to the Web and navigate using GPS – won’t be available in the fourth quarter as expected. The company blamed carrier specific requirements taking longer than anticipated, and said it expects the launch the product during the first half of 2009.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, riiight. iPhone, bitch!
Tibken continues, “Garmin shares fell about 14% in recent trading to $39.08 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock hit a two-year low and is down 60% this year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooofha!
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “KenC” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Bloodbath.
iPhone rulz!
“Garmin said its closely watched Nuvifone handset … won’t be available in the fourth quarter as expected. The company blamed <strike>Apple for actually caring about the customer and so designing and copyrighting all the best, most user-friendly phone interface technologies</strike>carrier specific requirements taking longer than anticipated.”
…”The company blamed carrier specific requirements taking longer than anticipated…”
The carrier requirements were:
1) it must offer telephone service via our cellular network
…which was obviously a tough milestone for them to achieve. Bummer.
Folks constantly underestimate the “boutique company” that is called Apple, Inc.
you sir, are no iPhone
I don’t think it’s a bloodbath caused by the iPhone.
More like an engineering meltdown inside Garmin itself now that they see it is not really that easy to build a great phone (hardware AND software) and work with the telecos and make money.
Of course, now that the entry price for the iPhone is $199, that doesn’t help much either, I would guess.
Kinda looks like an old Newton. yuck.
Synthmeister,
You left off your closing sentence:
“In other words, it’s a bloodbath caused by the iPhone.”
Well, at least the icons are nice and big. Other than that …
The arm of Garmin related to telephony is puny and pales in comparison to their aviation and maritime interests.
I’m certain that while competing in the phone space would be another revenue source, because god knows there’s plenty of room for competition, Garmin has bigger problems.
Plane and boat manufacturing is down considerably and though GPS is novel in the consumer arena and they have done a pretty brisk business in recent years, this company will be fighting for its life in the next few years and a phone just doesn’t matter.
We need this company to survive. It’s the leader in its field and right now its stock is in a bloodbath. Not good.
The easy bit was the Photoshop image of the device.
And they didn’t do that well.
Palm’s CEO, Ed Colligan meant to say “Navigation guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Well, I sent in the original link, but I kind of like Garmin, because they sponsor the Garmin-Chipotle bicycle team. Good luck to them on the Nuvifone, but now that I have my iPhone 3G I don’t need a dedicated GPS device.
well, sponsoring a bike team changes my mind about their phone, now I want one.
“Garmin shares fell about 14% in recent trading to $39.08 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock hit a two-year low and is down 60% this year.”
Perhaps they might consider forgetting bike teams for a time and work on their survival.
Ha. Yeah, let’s see if they get this product out by the middle of
next year. My money’s on this being a Longhorn-like process.
by the time this is released Apple will have turn by turn directions on the iPhone. Too bad…
Yea, it may be a bloodbath, but my point was that whether the iPhone was $199 or $499, Garmin would still be in a heap of troublle.
Heck, they would probably be in a heap of trouble if the iPhone didn’t even exist. I.e. their problems are much, much bigger than Apple. Kind of like Nokia starting an online Music store. Even if Apple didn’t exist, no one would use it or the telcos wouldn’t let them use.
And another one gone, and another one gone and another one bites the dust. (Apologies to Freddie)
Dean,
Garmin closed some 20% down on Wednesday. That’s a single-day drop. It is now around $35. Looks like they’ve been riding on the Nuvifone news for quite some time so far. Too bad…
These guys over charge for their GPS products. Now they expect the public to suck in the expense for their phone….you bet they need reformulate their plan.
Just my $0.02
Garmin’s GPS units have nice graphics, but that unit is ugly! Makes me wonder what Apple’s plans are for enhancing it’s own GPS on the iPhone. Voice-prompted turns are a must!