Garmin Nuvifone - Release Date Still Q3

Garmin has today denied that the Nuvifone will be released as early as June 2008 in some markets. They’ve added that it is however on schedule for a Q3 2008 date, in time for the Christmas season.

Given that we’ve not covered the Nuvifone before, lets take a look at why we think this is going to be a hot device - specially amongst men who cannot and will not learn how to ask for directions.

First of all, unlike offerings from various mobile companies, this device has evolved from a GPS and not a phone - expect to find a lot more location centric features in here, compared the offerings from Nokia, Sony and the rest, who have yet to perfect the GPS part of their phones.

When turned on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to begin navigating the phone, which is a multi-tasker. The multi-tasking allows users to switch between tasks like calling and looking up places in a map, without having to drop calls or quit applications.

One neat feature that we liked in the previews was the phones ability to switch into GPS and Handsfree mode as soon as its docked into the cradle in a car. You don’t need to hang up the call for this switch to happen.

The concept video below shows off several features, many of which we believe are far ahead of current offerings from the like of Nokia, Motorola and Sony.