Two new potentially market changing devices
This might not be news to most as it was announced a week or so ago (I’m a little behind since my vacation) but it’s worth saying nonetheless…
Recently Garmin and GE announced 2 very interesting GPS enabled devices, one is a phone, the other a digital camera.
Garmin Nuviphone
Although not expected to be released until the summer, this Garmin Nuviphone looks a lot like the Apple iPhone from the provided photos and has the potential to alter the GPS market landscape as well as the cellphone marketplace - competition in both markets is welcome in both in my opinion as good competition pushes companies to innovate and focus on the user experience - both things that benefit the consumer greatly (and in turn the companies that understand and implement these kinds of strategies).
The Nuviphone appears to be very well thought out design wise and executed well - It’s impossible to know what the real experience will be like as size/weight/battery life/price have not yet been disclosed, but for now I’m quite interested and would consider one instead of the iPhone (if either are ever released in Canada and the data rates in Canada fall inline with the rest of the developed world - I’m looking at you Rogers).
Garmin already has a very good understading of user experience on small devices and with GPS making it’s way (slowly) into digital cameras and cell phones it seems like a natural decision on Garmin’s part to me.
GE E1050
This might not be news to most as it was announced a week or so ago (I’m a little behind since my vacation) but it’s worth saying nonetheless…
With 10 megapixels, high-def movie recording, a touchscreen, GPS receiver with a MSRP of $249.99 this is a camera worth keeping an eye on! The E1050 is the first affordable camera I’ve seen with a GPS receiver on board - there’s a couple of others but the price vs. features keeps them off my list.
I don’t have any experience with GE cameras as I’m quite fond of my Canon Powershot and Rebel but at $250 I might be willing to try this out as it should be a fairly inexpensive way to have your photos automagically geocoded - and you can bet that we’ll be working on adding the ability to rimrocked to interpret the location data on the photos from this camera!
I couldn’t find any information on availability but it’s marked as 2008 camera, so keep an eye out for this digital camera - it might be the first affordable gps-enabled camera but it certainly won’t be the last, I’d expect increased competition in this market over the next year or so, which can only mean better options/experiences available to consumers - always a welcome thing!
February 18th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hey, Rimrocked! Thanks for the mention of the new GE E1050. This camera has been generating huge buzz since we took off the wraps at PMA. Geotagging has definitely gotten to be a hot trend - and we’ve got it in an easy-to-use, affordable format. It’s perfect for outdoor enthusiasts, skiers, fishermen, scientists, busy travelers and anyone who wants to chronicle their trip without relying on memory or taking copious notes.
We expect the camera will be available for sale by May without GPS, and by about September with the built-in GPS receiver.
Find out more about all the new GE cameras at www.ge.com/digitalcameras.