It sure didn’t take long for Garmin to cement their membership in the Open Handset Alliance with their pledge to support Android. Garmin has announced that they will be launching their Android handset in the second half of 2009.
Garmin’s Android push won’t be making its way into the Garmin Nuvifone, despite the GPS-phone’s oft-delayed development timeline. The Nuvifone will be based on a proprietary Linux-based operating system.
It’s unclear what Garmin has planned for their Android smartphone.
Garmin also confirmed that their long-delayed Nuvifone is still on in the pipeline. Unfortunately, the Garmin Nuvifone won’t hit market until Q2 2009 delivery, in Taiwan. As for the US, there are already numerous players in the GPS-capable touchscreen smartphone market, which doesn’t bode well for Garmin’s chances of cracking the US market. The Nuvifone has taken so long in getting to market that Garmin may have played itself right out of contention in any major market.