Asustek, Chunghwa to Co-Promote Garmin Nuvifone M20 Navigation Smartphone

Taipei, Aug. 18, 2009 (CENS)--Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. and Asustek Computer Inc. will begin to co-promote the Garmin Nuvifone M20 navigation smartphone as soon as Asustek debuts the feature-laden mobile phone tomorrow in Taipei.

Weighing only 99 grams, the phone offers a 2.8-inch accelerometer-driven touchscreen, allowing users to operate all functions including digital camera and global position system (GPS) on the screen. This phone runs on the Windows Mobile OS, contrast to Garmin Nuvifone G60 running on Linux OS.

Asustek and GPS-device maker Garmin announced in February they had entered into alliance on navigation smartphone business, with computer maker Asustek tapping the market in Asia and eastern Europe while Garmin pitching the handsets at consumers in the United States and eastern Europe.

Chunghwa executives said the company would put aside more budget for promoting smartphones including Nuvifone M20 this quarter as part of its goal to sell 210,000 systems. Added budget will go to subsidize consumers buying the phones.

The telecom carrier will begin to sell the navigation smartphone along with Apple iPhone 3GS and HTC Hero smartphones at the end of this month.

According to the government-backed Market Intelligence Center (MIC), which tracks information-communications market, Taiwan will ship around 12.5 million smarphones throughout this quarter, increasing nearly 30% from a quarter earlier , mostly thanks to contracts from Apple and HTC.

The institute indicated that Taiwan delivered 9.3 million smartphones last quarter, brining in the island US$2.8 billion in revenue, rising 34.7% year on year and 41.4% from a quarter earlier.