Garmin-Asus: No Windows Phone 7 devices this year
Garmin-Asus has no plans to debut Windows Phone 7 devices in 2010. Pictured is the nuvifone A50, launched today in Singapore, which is based on Android 2.1.
(Credit: Damian Koh/CNET Asia)
"We have no plans to launch Windows Phone this year," business development manager for Handheld Sales with Asus Technology, Fei Yen, told CNET Asia in an aside prior to today's launch announcement of the nuvifone A50 and nuvifone A10 smartphones in Singapore.
Although there are engineers working on the Windows Phone platform, the company's focus in the immediate future is on Google's Android, Yen said.
To that end, the A50 and A10 devices both run on Android 2.1 (Éclair). An update to the latest Android 2.2 (Froyo) can be expected by the end of the year, which can be downloaded from Garmin-Asus' Web site. The two phones are also available in selected countries in Asia Pacific.
Like HTC's Sense, Samsung's TouchWiz and Motorola's MotoBlur, the nuvifones feature a custom user interface heavily focused on navigation and location-based services developed entirely inhouse. When quizzed on the quick pace of Android updates and compatibility with the proprietary software offered by the phone-makers, Yen didn't think it was a big issue.
"We don't really do a lot of customizations in terms of UI like other competitors, so we don't really encounter this kind of difficulties," said Yen.
Yen added that the company is planning to collaborate with third parties and local developers to introduce new content and applications. Garmin-Asus is currently in discussions with the Land Transport Authority in Singapore to include traffic updates as well as cloud-enabled services for its devices.
According to Yen, the nuvifones use a click-and-go interaction concept, which allows quick and easy access to the navigational features of the handsets. Other features include a quick time-to-first-fix relying solely on the built-in GPS chip, so users don't have to pay for data traffic charges associated with Assisted-GPS. The bundled car kit for the A50, which is unique to the model, sports automatic switching to handsfree mode when the phone is mounted. The dock also charges the device and records the final GPS location before the handset is removed from the mount. The kit for the A10 has an additional built-in speaker that amplifies call volume. The onboard maps, based on Navteq and Malsingmaps, are updated quarterly.
This year alone, Garmin-Asus has launched three devices including the nuvifone M10, which runs on Windows Mobile 6.5.3. Yen said there won't be new product launches for the rest of the year.
"For our strategy… we want to be more focused, so we do a lot of integration in terms of the software and maps. This kind of integration takes time, so we won't launch a lot of models like other competitors. We want to be focused and provide the best location-based services for our customers," Yen added.
Research firm IDC recently reported that Android will prove to be the "wildcard", with HTC, Motorola and a few other manufacturers warming up to the open-source platform. Its recent report noted that there is "ample room for multiple players to grow" and that the smartphone OS market will not be dominated by a single platform like what Microsoft has with Windows on the PC.
IDC also expects Microsoft to regain market share lost in the past two years, when it launches its new Windows Phone 7 operating system on October 11. The rebooted software was first unveiled by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer at the Barcelona-based Mobile World Congress in February.
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