Android based Garmin Asus phone to be launched in October

Taiwanese handset manufacturer Garmin Asus is all set to launch its first Android handset in India. The smartphone will hit India in the first week of October.
The company already has a good line up of navigation friendly devices for sale in India, and this device too will have a navigation tools.
The Android market is currently booming and almost every handset manufacturer has an Android device in its portfolio. Garmin Asus, despite being a late entrant in this segment, aims to sell around 5,000 units of its Android smartphone by the end of this year.
Commenting on its delayed entry in the Android segment, John Chen, business development manager, India and Middle East region, Asus Technology, said, “The reason we are little bit late in this segment is because we needed to integrate our navigation system with Android operating system.”
He added, “We work in collaboration with Garmin. Hence, our focus, apart from smartphone is navigation. What is different about our navigation is that we integrate the navigation function together with the phone. None of the other vendor does this and we are unique ones to do it.”
The Garmin Asus device runs on Android 2.1 and will be upgradable to the next version of Android. Other than Garmin navigation, the Asus device will come with a 5.0 megapixel camera, geo tagging feature, location based services, expandable memory up to 16 GB, HSDPA support and embedded software such as Asus CIAO friend finder application etc.
Asus had a market share of 3 per cent in the initial years (2008 -2009) of its operations in India, which dropped down 1-2 per cent. The company is now focusing on garnering a 5 per cent share in the smartphone segment.
The handset manufacturer had launched its M 10 device running on Windows Mobile 6.5 earlier this year in March. The phone has been received well in India and Asus has sold around 5,000 units already.