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Garmin on your phone

Posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 11:43 by Simon and filed under Lead, News, Previews.

Garmin has launched a retail version of its Mobile XT product allowing for the GPS navigation software to be used on just about any mobile smartphone or PDA. The software is provided on memory cards that can be inserted into GPS-enabled devices, including a range of phones from Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Andrew McHenry, head of mobile and content for Avnic Trading, official South African distributor of Garmin and Garmap, says the product ships with the latest mapping data in the form of Garmap Africa Series 2008, and offers superior functionality to what most phone providers bundle with their devices.

Garmap Africa Series 2008 Second Edition now includes over 750000 kilometers of routable map data for 1700 cities, towns and villages, as well as 55 nature reserves, in nine countries. To date, the map set also includes over 190000 points of interest (POIs) and the list is growing on a regular basis.

“Garmin Mobile XT transforms GPS-enabled mobile phones or PDAs into full-featured navigation devices, with all the functionality of conventional GPS devices, plus a whole lot more,” says McHenry. “Garmin Mobile XT gives users the ability to check weather forecasts for their destinations, access flight details for many major airlines, and call a point of interest such as a restaurant or coffee shop, using the phone.”

“There are a number of community-focussed features in Garmin Mobile XT that aim to add even more benefit to having a GPS in your pocket,” he adds.

Garmin Mobile XT users can send a location message to another mobile phone – detailing their exact location in GPS coordinates. If the receiving mobile phone also has Mobile XT installed, the message translates into a destination point and allows the receiver to easily and quickly navigate to that point.

“This brings a whole new dimension to the way we interact with each other,” explains McHenry. “It can save you a lot of time and frustration in finding a destination, whether you’re on your way to an important client meeting or having drinks with your friends after work. And it’s particularly useful when you’re navigating in areas where there aren’t any road names or sign posts.”

Being able to find someone also plays a huge role in safety and security. Mobile XT includes a “panic button”, which automatically fires off an urgent location message to three emergency contacts whenever the ‘#’ key is depressed for more than 3 seconds in certain Samsung and Nokia handsets.

For tourists and pedestrians in South Africa, Garmin Mobile XT also includes a useful social feature called “Panoramio”, a tool that allows consumers to access user-generated content that has been uploaded to the Web.

“Utilising Panoramio, users can download a list of photos that were taken by other users who had visited the same area before and uploaded these geo-tagged photos to the Panoramio website,” says McHenry.

“In Garmin Mobile XT, users see a list of photos, a short description of the photo and the distance to the place where the photo was taken. Users then simply select the attraction that they want to see and Garmin Mobile XT shows them how to get there.”

“This makes it easy to navigate cities and tourist destinations, using landmarks and tourist attractions without having to know the exact address,” McHenry adds. “It’s a great new way of discovering attractions in foreign cities, or maybe even in your backyard.”

“There is so much more to the GPS feature on mobile devices than the glorified map book,” McHenry opines. “It’s not just about navigating from point A to point B anymore. There’s so much to discover out there, and you may just be carrying the very tool in your pocket to help you find it.”

Garmin Mobile XT version 5 will go on sale at retail outlets from the beginning of 2009, for a recommended retail price of R990.

Compatible handsets include:

HTC: Touch Diamond, Touch Cruise, Touch Pro, P3300, X7500, TyTNII, P3470, X7500
Sony Ericsson: Xperia X1
Nokia: E90, E71, E66, N96, N95 8GB, N95, N85, N82, N79, N78, 6220 Classic, 6210 Navigator, 6110 Navigator
Samsung: i560, G810, i8510, i780, i900

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4 Comments so far

Comment by Koe, posted on November 21st, 2008 at 11:50

I still think its far too much to be asking, phones like the Nokia N95 that lie about coming with free fully functional GPS should foot the cost for additional services like this that are actually required to get the “free” and “built in” gps to work.

Comment by Glen, posted on November 21st, 2008 at 15:07

This is awesome news!

The maps provided with Nokia phones nowadays are so outdated and useless – plus you have to pay extra for voice navigation too. I think this is great.

Now if only Garmin did this for the iPhone.