In two separate releases last week during CTIA, Garmin announced that they have launched Garmin Mobile 20 " an automotive navigation system that delivers Garmin’s voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions using Bluetooth wireless technology", on Smart Phones and Blackberry Devices. I have always lumped BBs into the Smart Phone category, but two releases on the same day...
Let's take a look at the releases. Gary Kelley, Garmin's VP Marketing states that the service will support 50 smart phones. Key features:
3D maps
Traffic info from Traffic.com
Gas Station finder with fuel pricing
Weather from Custom Weather
and, I found this one interesting - PeerPoints(TM): "In addition, Garmin Mobile 20 includes PeerPoints™, a powerful short message service (SMS) feature that lets users send their position or information about a POI to other phones. This unique position reporting feature helps users keep track of their friends and family, and navigate to them with the touch of a button."
The Smart Phone package will not be available until Nov 2006, and will launch with a price tag of $299. There was no info on the BB availability and pricing.
Nice to see someone getting into the smart phone market. I wonder if this will force the carriers to force the OEMS to embed GPS chips on their smart phones, so carriers can participate in this business.
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