The GPS Insider

These are the kind of specs that most wireless consumers are drooling over:  touchscreen, 3G data, WiFi, integrated GPS and media player.  But would you pay $499 for a Garmin Nüvifone?  I didn’t think so.  That’s because iPhone 3G just launched today at a $199 price tag, with all of the same features.   The Nüvifone still isn’t slated to launch for another three months or so.

And when it does finally launch, it will find itself competing with a number of sophisticated GPS-enabled smartphones in addition to the popular iPhone: BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Instinct, Nokia N96 and others.  The pricing pressure will be brutal.

“Getting to the viable price of $199 could involve considerable pain,” says Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner. At a $200 subsidy from the carrier, Garmin is likely looking at a product margin in the mid-teens, estimates Reiner.  Compare that to Yankee Group’s estimate of 50% gross margin for Apple’s 3G iPhone.

Pricing aside, perhaps the biggest competitive advantage Apple has is the new iTunes App Store.  Can you get SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball for the Nüvifone?  Nope.  Other than Garmin’s turn-by-turn software, you’re pretty much left with GyPSii, a second-rate social networking LBS app.  That’s the downside of not having a developer community, as Steve Jobs discovered decades ago in the Mac/PC wars.

It’s no wonder that investors seem to have priced in a Nüvifone disaster, with GRMN trading down 56% YTD.

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I guess you could call me jaded.  It’s not often that a mobile application really impresses me anymore.  This one did.  Almotawef, which is an application for Muslim pilgrims, helps them find their relatives and groups during Hajj, walks them through the Hajj rituals and points them to the places they have to go to. I haven’t seen the app myself, but the concept is fabulous.  It addresses a real consumer need and targets a specific activity.  Value and utility.  If I were on a pilgrimage to Mecca I would pay for this in a heartbeat.  The application was developed on weNear, a new framework for location-based services.

Thanks, Andrei

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Long time no blog. I know, I’ve been a bad boy. Last month I attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest gathering of mobile execs (and wanna-bes) outside of next week’s CTIA. I have lots of memories of the week, from the 2-hour registration queue to the stunning Gaudi architecture to $600/night for a second-rate hotel (damn you, Federal Reserve for that exchange rate). But the most poignant moment of the event was standing in the middle of Hall 8 between the Nokia and Motorola booths. Nokia was busting at the seams with people, having just launched 4 new GPS-enabled devices: the N96, N78, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic. Not to mention Nokia Maps 2.0. I glanced to my left and the Motorola booth was nearly empty, a sad sight for me as an ex-Motorolan. I wandered over there and asked one of the Moto employees if they had any GPS phones, “you know, like the ones over at the Nokia booth that you can geo-tag photos with.” She made no effort to put any spin on the fact they they had absolutely no devices in that category. So I’m not entirely shocked that the company just spun out the handset division, prepping for a possible sale. But some of the recent dirty laundry is still eye-opening (Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon). As a friend recently remarked, Motorola and Ed Zander will likely soon be immortalized in an HBS case study…

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Garmin made a splash last night and announced their new mobile phone. The nüvifone will feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen, internet browser, HSDPA support, Bluetooth, WiFi, camera, media player, and preloaded maps of North America and / or Europe. In addition, it houses “millions” of POIs, doles out turn-by-turn, and voice-prompted directions. Garmin has partnered with Google to integrate access to Local Search and Panoramio. But here’s the problem - the devices run Garmin’s proprietary PND OS.

As expected, there has been considerable confusion and ignorance coming from Street analysts and the media. No, this is not Garmin’s first foray into the mobile phone market (Garmin NavTalk) nor is it “the first time navigation and LBS have been put at the core of a wireless device” as an Oppenheimer note trumpeted (Nokia 6110 Navigator).

This strategy is hardly unexpected - GRMN has taken a ugly beating over the last three months because of the perceived threat of shrinking PND margins and increased competition from mobile phone manufacturers. Garmin knows they need to enter the market in a big way. But without the scale and distribution that device makers like Nokia and Samsung enjoy, does Garmin stand a chance? I think it’s likely that Apple, Nokia and HTC will eat Garmin for lunch. Keep your eyes peeled - nüvifone is expected in Q3.

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With this morning’s housing numbers showing an 11% YoY decline in median home prices and a 9.6 month supply at the current sales rate, this deal raises some eyebrows. Mobile real estate listing company Smarter Agent recently closed a $6.2 million “oversubscribed” first round of funding. The round was led by private equity magnate Ira Lubert, who co-founded Lubert-Adler’s multi-billion dollar real estate fund, LLR Partners, Quaker Bio Ventures and Versa Capital. The funding will support the roll-out of Smarter Agent’s GPS real estate searches including a Homes for Sale application due to launch at the beginning of Spring. Smarter Agent has a service which lets people find houses for rent or sale near where they are when they make the enquiry—it launched on Sprint a year or so ago and gains subscription revenue though a monthly fee. It claims that over 25,000 people used the service over the summer and 35 percent placed calls to the agent/property owner.

That’s a nice-sized investment for the company and should help to get things moving. Right now they’re stagnating with just one carrier, Sprint Nextel (which happens to be bleeding to death right now). Integrating the apps with an ad model should work well. And with one third of users placing calls to owners/brokers there could be a really nice commission model there as well. It would make sense to push the app for free, although the carriers would never let that fly. I’ll bet that Apartments for Rent application will get some good traction with the foreclosure tidal wave upon us…

via MocoNews.net

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So much for the “several weeks” window for the N95-3. Engadget is reporting that the phone is available immediately in Nokia’s New York and Chicago flagship stores for $699. No word on an AT&T agreement…this might not be a good sign for a subsidized version.

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I know I said that I was done with AT&T last week, but it appears that I spoke too soon. Turns out it’s the SGH-i780, a device that was passed around at Dubai’s GITEX show earlier this month. From the spec sheet adjacent to the display phone, you can pretty clearly make out Windows Mobile 6 Professional (touchscreen), WiFi, HSDPA, a 2 megapixel camera and GPS. Might this be the rumored BlackJack 2?

[via Engadget Mobile]

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Engadget claims that the N95-3, the U.S. version of the popular GPS-capable phone with American 3G support, is scheduled to hit shelves in the next two weeks. And by American 3G, we’re talking about AT&T (850 / 1900MHz bands of HSDPA). The N95 has been putting up solid numbers in Europe and Nokia looks to be pushing this phone to other regions now. I’ve heard rumors (from very reliable sources) that Telstra will be launching a version Down Under. And getting AT&T to subsidize one in the U.S. would be a very good thing.

[via Engadget Mobile]

data sheet at Nokia

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Let’s wrap up the week with a final GPS-enabled phone from AT&T. I’m honestly amazed at the sheer number of capable handsets rolling out right now (HP iPAQ 900, Moto Q Global, BB 8820, HTC Tilt). Either AT&T is seriously ramping up their location-based strategy or the handset vendors are pushing the agenda. I’m a happy camper either way. So the HTC Kaiser (also known as the TyTN II or 8925) is currently available from numerous European carriers or unlocked from importers. But we all know that Americans like their phones cheap and subsidized on contract. AT&T was scheduled to launch a rebranded version as the “Tilt” in the September 25th release window but it looks like it might slip to October. You want to know specs? Windows Mobile 6 Pro, HSDPA, QWERTY pad, WiFi and SiRFstar III GPS.

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It’s true, AT&T launched the BlackBerry 8820 yesterday for $299. So if you own a now-outdated 8800 (like me), you are permitted to use your handset as a paperweight (skipping stone, doggy toy). Actually, WiFi is the only major new feature on the device, but it’s a big one. And according to AT&T, you need a qualifying data plan to activate WiFi functionality, although there is absolutely no technical relationship between the two. Rumor also has it that GPS is locked unless you purchase an AT&T-approved application (Telenav).

[via Engadget Mobile]

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