“The severity of the decline in its PND business forced Garmin to foray into the smartphone market last year with the nuvifone, pitting it against the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry,” Ghosh reports. “The company, however, said it was disappointed by the sales of the nuvifone till date but added that it would spend most of its R&D dollars in this business in 2010. ‘I think the incremental R&D dollar will be shunted more towards their other businesses and to the nuvifone, which will be given at least another year to prove its viability,’ Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Here, we’ll save you at least another year: Garmin’s nuvifone is not viable.
Ghosh continues, “The company plans to launch two more models of the phone in the first half of this year.”
MacDailyNews Take: A shouted “Ballmeresque!” sends peals of laughter ringing forth, echoing down the cavernous halls of the palatial MDN headquarters.
Ghosh continues, “Shares of the Cayman Islands-based company were trading down almost $2.20, or more than 6 percent, at $32.25 in afternoon trade on Nasdaq.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
they are based in the cayman islands?!?!?!
Does not sound garmin marvelous does it? I mean what the garmin fool decided to enter the mobile phone market at a time of maximum competition? Garmin should stick to proliferating there devises to as broad a base as possible before seeking tie ups or buy ups. The Garmy fools!!
@ ABQ Peter. Base for tax dodging companies!
Here is a thought, Palm Garmin or Garmin Palm? GP, Geo Positioning Garmin Palm.
It was founded in the cayman islands but now based in Kansas City, Kansas.
Garmin should have done a deal with Apple to have Garmin as the native map for the iPhone. Garmin makes a great nav, but I wouldn’t say that their UI is the best in the world.
I would not trust a company based in the Caymans. The Firm anyone?
They should shut their hardware divisionn down and focus on their navigation apps for the iPhone and that one for geeks.
Ghosh continues, “The company plans to launch two more models of the phone in the first half of this year.”
Ghosh, what a silly idea!
Sounds like Garmin doesn’t know where they’re going.
You see this a lot. People who start companies and see some success are often reluctant to admit when the business becomes nonviable. They usually ride it into the ground.
What the fsck is a nuvifone?
I could google it, but if you have to google a phone….
They need to sell a $20 iPhone app.
@Crabapple
Sadly it’s all one big game for the uber rich that leave the rest of us paying!
Or tax dodging politicians, like the late Ted Kennedy who carried it over from his father Joseph Kennedy!
“Why do you think U.S. Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy has moved his entire personal estate assets to an offshore trust located in Tortola, BVI? Possibly because BVI has no estate or death tax? Kennedy has few personal assets in the U.S. The family pays an annual rent (to cover property taxes, insurance, maintenance, operations, etc.) to his BVI trust for his considerable luxury compounds located in Martha’s Vineyard, Palm Beach and elsewhere. I am a man of modest means, but when we both die I suspect my death tax bill will be larger than his.”
“But far and away the most common reason is tax evasion. The first truly modern multinational tax evaders arose in the United States in the 1920s. They were men like Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the late president, a stock manipulator and liquor importer who ordered his foreign suppliers and attorneys to submit fraudulent and inflated bills which he then promptly paid in order to move otherwise taxable profits overseas.”
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/2/dirtybanking.php
http://www.davidstuff.com/opinion/taxes.htm
iPhone’s built-in GPS hardware is inferior compared to a purpose built GPS handheld such as Garmin makes. iPhone’s GPS updates deathly slowly, and it’s not as pinpoint accurate as a modern handheld that has a much larger GPS antenna and a dedicated processor that doesn’t have to do double duty in playing games or taking calls. iPhone’s GPS capabilities are sufficient for most users, such as street navigation and location based services. But the iPhone is not good enough to rely on with your life on the line in the wilderness, nor is it super accurate for geocaching.
There is a viable market for a good, inexpensive, handheld GPS. Garmin should concentrate on making their top of the line devices better and much, much less expensive, and forget this crap about a GPS phone. And if they really want to make a ton of money, they should invent an accessory for the iPhone that consists of a more responsive dedicated GPS antenna plus a back-up battery doubling or tripling the iPhones battery life. Something that can attach to the iPhone like a mophie juicebox does, and that shuts off the iPhone’s internal GPS antenna and supersedes it with the bigger auxiliary antenna, but uses the iPhone’s display and operating interface. Do that and sell it for no more than 80 bucks and you will make a fortune.
Garmin make high quality kit – except maybe phones.
They have really amazing portable GPS systems for land sea and air use. Much better performing than what an iPhone app can handle right now.
They also manufacture Glass Cockpits that replace many dials, gauges and navigation instruments in aircraft.
An iPad might be able to display a small Glass Cockpit screen but in a light aircraft there probably isnt room for it.
@ ArchtMig
I agree
Fack €armin – those a-holes were in the pocket of Mfn$ for years! They did everything they could to block the Mac from any usefull iteration of GPS Hardwear OR software. A gol damba serial port in the 21st MFN century? Really? The can go straight to he’ll and drag stupid Magellan with them!
Joseph Kennedy was a liquor importer?
When he was importing liquor, his customers called his trade bootlegging.
I guess Liquor Importer is ‘Uptown’ for Bootlegger.
@Dijonaise
You beat me to it.
Both Garmim and Magellan in the 90’s and early 2000’s sucked. Windows only, serial port only. I’m sorry but when everything is USB and they still did not make a USB GPS unit, they are in serious need of technical direction.
I have an old Magellan in the drawer somewhere. Gotta use a USB to serial dongle and Windows to do anything with it. Not worth the effort.
Hope they get run over by a smarter company.
Dammit, I love my Garmin. I hope they don’t f*** up their company by flushing money down the drain trying to jump on the smartphone bandwagon.
——RM
GRMN should stick to those wilderness durable and professional navigation GPS devices. Yes, I guess the worldwide casual car driving market is huge but are they losing money or earning money in that segment? And are they throwing away their wilderness/pro business by focusing on the wrong thing?
I would never rely on my iPhone in the wilderness but I guess I must be a very small percentage of iPhone users; most of the other ones I suppose will be happy with their downloaded GPS app. I’ve found none that can replace a handheld GPS but they are good as a secondary GPS “gizmo” such as viewing topo maps, etc. (even though my main GPS can do most of those things).
@Rot’nApple
Just asking…Why single out the Kennedy’s? They are small fry, when compared to corporations like Halliburton. Halliburton owns 17 subsidiaries in tax haven countries, including 13 in the Cayman Islands. It dodged taxes while a recent administration (with connections to the company) shovelled billions in taxpayer money to it via no-bid contracts.
If Garmin moved to Kansas from the Cayman Islands, then I say good for them.
Oh, thanks so much for turning a business story about Garmin into an ideologically motivated history lesson. You seem to have a problem with perspective. That dust spec in your eye gets in the way of everything you look at…