Pilot My-Cast by Garmin Coming to the iPhone

[Tunnelrunner]

Apparently sometime in the 4th quarter of 2009 (also when the Nuviphone is supposed to launch), Garmin will be releasing an *aviation* weather/GPS app for the iPhone and the ipod touch -- yes, an aviation app...sadly, not a driving navigation GPS app.

But it still makes you wonder...maybe Garmin is also secretly working on an iPhone Nuvi GPS app to go head to head with their main rival TomTom? Especially if their Nuviphone turns out to be a complete failure...

http://garmin.blogs.com/pr/2009/07/...-include-airport.html?activeBranchId=newsroom

http://gpsobsessed.com/garmin-iphone-app-coming-in-september-nuviphone-in-q4/

Yes...back when TomTom announced their GPS app for 3.0, Garmin made an official statement that they had no plans to release an app for the iphone, but things change and stranger things have happened.

 

[ct2k7]

hmm, this was an unlikely move.

 

[avaloncourt]

Yes...back when TomTom announced their GPS app for 3.0, Garmin made an official statement that they had no plans to release an app for the iphone, but things change and stranger things have happened.

Well, a while back they said they weren't getting into an iPhone automotive GPS app. I guess they were right but, yes, I think it could be likely that they'd do that if the Nuviphone fails (and that is probably a strong possibility).

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Well, a while back they said they weren't getting into an iPhone automotive GPS app. I guess they were right but, yes, I think it could be likely that they'd do that if the Nuviphone fails (and that is probably a strong possibility).

Avalon,

I was trying do a web search to see the official statement by Garmin from a few months ago...didn't have much luck and this was all that I could find:

"At this time, we have no plans to offer an iPhone application given our strategic smartphone relationship with ASUS to produce the Garmin-Asus nüvifone," Garmin spokesperson Jessica Myers told AppleInsider earlier this week.

So who knows? At any rate, I would love to see a Garmin Nuvi app in the App Store, though. Other than Telenav, this was the one GPS app I most wanted to see on the iphone.

 

[Pika]

Garmin is better then TomTom.

 

[avaloncourt]

I was trying do a web search to see the official statement by Garmin from a few months ago...didn't have much luck and this was all that I could find:

Press release-wise, no I don't think so.

From the UK Register, June 24:

AppleInsider recently reported that "a trio" of turn-by-turn navigation companies would be offering iPhone apps, citing TomTom and AT&T supplier TeleNav and adding Navigon to the interested parties. AppleInsider was told by a Garmin spokesperson, however, that that company has no plans to join the party.

That indicates to me "the party" means automotive turn-by-turn apps.

 

[kate-willbury]

garmin really missed the mark on this one. the decision not to have a turn by turn app for the iphone was incredibly dumb on their part.

and the nuviphone will quite obviously fail. i'm not even talking from a macsheep point of view.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Flawed strategy if you ask me. They're making a hardware-specific device for GPS that happens to have phone functions. In the meantime, GPS has proliferated all smart phones and now third-party GPS developers have brought out perfectly fine GPS TBT applications.

That essentially negates any perceived benefit of Garmin's dedicated GPS phone. They'll eventually relent and realize that licensing their software on different platforms is the way to make money.

I'm sure they didn't foresee the iPhone being able to do this, but once it was apparent they should have reversed course. Now they're going to lose a decent amount of market share in this area and will be playing catch up.

 

[avaloncourt]

Flawed strategy if you ask me. They're making a hardware-specific device for GPS that happens to have phone functions.

...

Now they're going to lose a decent amount of market share in this area and will be playing catch up.

Yep. I've said it before here. Garmin sucks at convergence devices. One of the biggest purchase mistakes I ever made was the Garmin iQue 3600. It was a horribly expensive Palm/Garmin GPS. It was proprietary in its hardware and not fully compatible with existing software because it had an odd screen size as compared to other Palm devices. Developers also had no ability to write software using the GPS data at all. FAIL. Then Garmin almost immediately abandoned it and everyone who bought it. I won't ever buy another Garmin convergence device again.