In news that should shock absolutely no one, an analyst said T-Mobile’s Garminfone is not selling well. Hmmm, maybe consumers don’t want a relatively limited GPS-centric handset, even if it does run Android.
On paper, the Garminfone looks okay. It sports a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3-megapixel camera with no flash, 3G, WiFi and a microSD slot. These specs won’t blow you away but Garmin including its turn-by-turn navigation and maps could have made this appealing for people trying to ditch their personal navigation device.
Morgan Keegan analyst Yair Reiner visited about 50 T-Mobile stores to do some inventory checks about the Android handset and he wasn’t very impressed by the sales figures. Granted, there hasn’t been an official sales announcement but I think Reiner’s conclusions about the Garminfone are pretty solid.
“Before the product launched, many sales associates spoke with enthusiasm about the device, stating it had by far the best navigation functionality of any mobile phone. However, even several days after release, many stores had not yet put the handset out on display, which was probably not very beneficial for sales,” Reiner said in a research note. “Others had not sold any despite displays being setup and several sold a few (less than 5). As of the beginning of this week stores have yet to show any meaningful sales numbers with maybe 5 sold on average per store since launch.”
Why the poor uptake of the T-Mobile Garminfone? I think Android 2.0, with a free, native turn-by-turn navigation with Google Navigation, is a big part of this. Sure, Google’s service doesn’t work without a cellular connection but it’s good enough for the majority of users and this firmware comes on more-appealing handsets like the Android-powered myTouch 3G Slide.
Moving forward, Garmin Asus needs to focus on making killer hardware. The location-centric nature of its devices are a good idea but location-based services are coming in a big way to all these mobile platforms through apps, so Garmin Asus needs to do something different to stand out from the crowd.
Check out the Garminfone below.
[Via JAMP Blog]