Garmin-Asus releases latest all-in-one smart phone

M10 features smart navigation, smart phone, smart lifestyle that paves way to Smart3 era.

Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin® Ltd. and ASUSTeK® Computer Inc., announced Mar. 24 the Garmin-Asus M10, a full-touch, all-in-one smart phone powered by Tele Atlas maps solutions and Windows Mobile 6.5.3, from Microsoft Corp. The M10 keeps professionals connected with business and personal contacts, email, calendar and IM, in addition to featuring preloaded mobile navigation and maps from Garmin and Tele Atlas. The M10 is expected to be available through Singapore in late March 2010 with competitive pricing.

"The Garmin-Asus M10 is our answer to people's need for work-life balance. The M10 runs Windows® Mobile, making it the ideal smart phone for business use. World's best Garmin technology with pre-loaded Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei maps ensure a hassle free drive for all while its comprehensive social networking features and connected services enable users to lead a truly smart lifestyle. The M10 is the phone for the new Smart3 era – smart phone, smart navigation, smart lifestyle," said Benson Lin, Vice President and General Manager of ASUS’ Personal Mobile Devices Business Unit, Handheld Business Group.

"The Garmin-Asus M10 is a powerful time-saving tool that is designed for anyone who is tired of carrying numerous devices and instead wants to carry one device that gives them many of the same features found on a stand-alone phone, laptop, portable navigation devices (PND) and digital camera," said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO.

‘Click and Go’ Smart Navigation

Central to the M10's user experience is navigation, built upon highly accurate and updated Tele Atlas map information. True to its dedication to premium navigation, time to first fix for the M10 takes a mere 33 seconds. User can also multitask by making calls during navigation, which adds to an exceptionally intuitive and smooth navigation experience. To further enhance ease of use, navigation functions are linked to frequently used applications such as calendar, contacts, email, internet browser, and messaging.

The M10 comes with advanced navigation features equivalent to a high-end Garmin 1460 portable navigation device (PND) to deliver powerful, highly accurate turn-by-turn directions and ensuring drivers have the exact location of thousands of points of interest (POIs) that make it easier to find the nearest hotels, stores, petrol stations, restaurants and more. The M10 also comes with advanced display features such as 2D City Maps, text to speech, lane guidance and junction view information, which provide richer maps to more closely reflect end users' surroundings, help guide drivers to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit and realistically displays road signs.

"Singapore is a key market for navigation as the users here are very savvy and require the latest and most innovative features. The maps and location content available for Singapore are highly detailed, covering 5,408km of roads, and deliver powerful navigation features for users of portable navigation devices (PNDs)," said Rajive Chandra, Tele Atlas Director of Sales and Marketing, APAC. "Navigation and location based services and applications are seeing tremendous interest from consumers due to the ubiquity of powerful smart phones such as the Garmin Asus M10. Tele Atlas is proud to contribute to this device and the robust navigation experience which it offers."

A Premium Smart Phone

Garmin-Asus M10 is the first smart phone to come with Windows® Mobile 6.5.3, the latest operating system with features upgrades that enhance the user experience and provides access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile, enabling a vast number of Windows phone applications to be downloaded.

"The Garmin-Asus M10 demonstrates our commitment to deliver an outstanding experience to anyone looking to do more every day, at work and at play. We're very excited to welcome a new device from Garmin-Asus to the Windows Phones family," said Natasha Kwan, general manager for Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business in Asia. "Microsoft continues to listen to what people want and will collaborate closely with partners to push the boundaries of what is possible."

The M10 has a sleek design with a 3.5-inch WVGA display and a finger-friendly user interface. The Billboard feature displays the most important information so users can review all at one glance. An intuitive 3D Task Manager also allows users to switch easily between running applications. Keeping the phone responsive and the navigation smooth are 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM, while 4GB eMMC Flash memory provides ample storage for multimedia and data.

The M10 is equipped with a 1500 mAh battery for hours of uninterrupted use, as well as a full QWERTY soft keyboard for speedy text input. HSDPA wireless connectivity and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) ensure that messages are sent and received quickly. In addition, the M10 can be synched to Microsoft Exchange® so that contacts, calendars and emails are always available and secure.

Ushering in a Smart Lifestyle

Besides being the best cost performance Windows® Mobile smart phone, the Garmin-Asus M10 boasts a range of social capabilities, including access to Facebook™ and Picasa Web Albums™. It also comes with an easy to use click & search function along with real-time information when connected such as restaurant guide, weather, transit, movie times, flight status and more at users' fingertips. In addition, the M10 is equipped with a high performance 5 mega-pixel camera that automatically geo-tags photos so that users will always know where they were taken and can easily share them with friends via built-in social networking applications.

The product will be available 27th March 2010 via M1 and StarHub, and all authorized resellers.