Garmin’s Nüvifone Site

Upon further examination, I’m getting a much stronger vaporware vibe from this. For something due by September, they’re awfully short on details. Their screenshot gallery is entirely comprised of mockups, not actual screenshots or photos from an actual prototype. (Unless the Nüviphone is going to pack a 1400 × 795 display, which is pretty unlikely.) When Apple pre-announced the iPhone six months in advance, they had real screenshots and actual prototype hardware. No word at all on how you type, what OS the device is using, Mac/PC connectivity or synching, or what rendering engine the web browser users. Whole things smells less-than-half-baked. Update: Engadget has “hands-on” photos, but none with the prototype turned, you know, on.

Garmin also seems to be implicitly encouraging direct comparison to the iPhone and Apple: the hardware is obviously iPhone-esque; the screenshot mockups are entirely set in Myriad (the iPhone uses Helvetica, of course, but Myriad is Apple’s branding font); and even the name, “Nüvifone”, contains the substring “ifone”.

★ Thursday, 31 January 2008