Garmin, the maker of the popular portable GPS navigation units, is developing a Windows Phone 7 Series powered smartphone, coupled with its GPS application, the same version found on the company’s portable GPS units, according to a confidential source familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans were not made public.
Late in 2009, Google announced it would release Google Maps Navigation, a free application for Android powered devices that provided turn-by-turn GPS navigation with its popular street-view imagery.
That announcement alone caused both the Garmin and TomTom stocks to tank.
After facing intensifying competition from smartphone makers who offered a perfect substitute to portable GPS navigation units, the company last year developed its own smartphone, powered by Windows Mobile, the nuvi fone.
The company previously said that the nuvi fone was not as successful as the company would have hoped. Top-level executives even implied the company would discontinue its short-lived smartphone division if sales did not pick up in the future. Assuming poor sales performance of this upcoming handset, that fact could very well materialize by the end of the next fiscal year.
However, consumers are widely anticipating Microsoft’s newest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, that is not built on the same architecture as Windows Mobile, that is, it is a completely new operating system with a completely new user interface.
Garmin is also expected to launch at least one Android powered smartphone as soon as by the end of this year, or some time in the first quarter of 2011, starting with an Asia-only launch.
The Garmin stock (NASDAQ:GRMN) is trading up almost 1-percent at $30.38 per share near mid-day trading in today’s trading session.
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