Garmin Nuvifone delayed again
Though I know that the Garmin Nuvifone actually exists--I have held it in my hand--I'm beginning to think it's like the proverbial carrot held over a poor horse's head. Every time we think we're getting closer, the GPS phone magically recedes farther into the distance.
Twice Mobile reported last week that Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble announced yet another delay for the handset. During a first-quarter earnings conference call, Pemble said the phone should now go on sale in the second half of this year, which would make it a year late. Pemble said that building the phone is proving to be difficult. "Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that's built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task," he said.
We first heard about the Nuvifone more than a year ago and we got our first glimpse of a prototype at the GSMA World Congress in February 2008. At the time, Garmin promised that the phone would be out at the end of last year, but last July the company delayed it until the first half of 2009. Then last February, we got our first hands-on with the Nuvifone after Garmin announced a partnership with Asus to produce a series of Nuvifone models.
As the first half of the year is ticking to a close, we were wondering if Garmin would make good on it's last word. Sadly, that's not the case, but we hope that it won't happen again.
Editor's note: This blog initially misspelled the name of Garmin's president and COO. The actual spelling is Cliff Pemble.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
