Garmin plans a GPS phone

Article Excerpt

GARMIN $37.23 (Nasdaq symbol GRMN; SI Rating: Speculative) (913-397-8200; www.garmin.com; Shares outstanding: 200.5 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion) is launching its nuvifone G60 smartphone later this year. The company recently announced that AT&T will be the wireless carrier. AT&T also carries Apple’s iPhone. Garmin will make the nuvifone in partnership with Taiwanese PC maker Asustek. The nuvifone faces considerable competition from established market leaders like Nokia, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone. But Garmin’s smartphone, which runs on the Linux operating system, will build on its leadership in the GPS field. For example, it offers turn-by-turn navigation, and has a camera that automatically tags images with the exact latitude and longitude of where the picture was taken. The phone will also include Google’s local-search capabilities. That lets nuvifone users search continuously updated Google listings for restaurants, lodging, ATMs, gas stations and so on. Search results are based on the user’s location, and are sorted by geographic relevance. Garmin expects the nuvifone to…