Positioning device maker Garmin has dropped plans to enter the cell phone market on its own and instead teamed up with Taiwan’s low-cost PC maker Asustek, the companies said on Wednesday.
The move to jointly offer navigation phones — often called GPS phones, because they can determine a person’s exact location — builds on an existing manufacturing deal between the companies, and comes as the phones continue to gain in popularity among handset users.
The new partnership plans to roll out its first co-branded smartphones this year under the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone brand, including a model to be launched later this month at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, the companies said in a statement.
“We hope this alliance will lift Garmin and Asustek to the top of the smartphone business,” Asustek Chairman Jonney Shih told reporters at a media event in Taipei.
The world’s top smartphone makers include Nokia, the world’s top cell phone maker, and more niche companies such as Apple, maker of the iPhone, Taiwan’s HTC and Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry phones.
Garmin and Asustek said the new co-brand will replace their existing own-branded phones. The alliance is the extension of a one-year tie-up between the companies, which saw Asustek originally making cell phones for Garmin on a contract basis.
Garmin planned to enter the cell phone market last year, but delayed its phone launch plans into 2009.
“Garmin has, however, not much choice as people are moving more and more from personal navigation devices to phones as their navigation device of choice,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
New Battleground
The move marks a fresh push to cell phones for Asustek, known more for its PCs, reflecting a trend as Taiwan’s Acer gets set to launch smartphones in Barcelona and Dell is rumored to be considering a move into the space.
“The boundaries between…