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BusinessWire: Garmin announced yesterday that its automotive OEM division will provide in-dash navigation for the new 2011 model year Chrysler Grand Cherokee.

The program marks Garmin’s first major automotive navigation system to be installed at the factory.

The system combines Garmin’s best-selling, affordable, and intuitive user interface into Chrysler’s Uconnect radio that merges technology and content into one 6.5” touchscreen display.

“Garmin is uniquely positioned to quickly bring the latest and greatest navigation technology to an in-dash environment – priced at a level that mainstream drivers can afford,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and chief operating officer.

“Being a navigation provider for Chrysler is a significant and long sought-after achievement for our company. We look forward to collaborating with them on this exciting project.”

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DigiTimes: North America overtook EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) as the largest regional market for PNDs in the final quarter of 2008, according to research firm Canalys.

In fourth-quarter 2008, the US alone accounted for 52% of the worldwide PND shipment total, compared to 36% for EMEA.

“The US has continued to deliver unit growth on-year, despite the economic situation, but this is supported by very aggressive pricing, especially for holiday promotions,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst.

“Shipments in the US were up 20% in the fourth quarter, and 44% for the whole year. In contrast, EMEA was down 26% in the quarter, bringing global shipments for the fourth quarter down 4%.”

Garmin retained its worldwide PND lead, increasing its market share in the fourth quarter to 37%, up from 35% in the third quarter and up from 30% in the year-ago quarter.

TomTom kept second place, also increasing its share, taking 30% of the market in fourth-quarter 2008. The combined shipments of Mio and Navman put Mitac in third with 6% share, narrowly ahead of Nextar. F

or the year of 2008, PND shipments globally grew 18% over 2007, to around 41 million units, but the value of those shipments fell 16%, highlighting the price war that has been raging in the industry. Canalys estimates that more than three-quarters of the PNDs that shipped in the fourth quarter were priced below 200 euro (US$250) before tax, and that connected PNDs, which are typically at the higher end of the price range, represented less than 1% of the total shipments.

“One of the challenges facing vendors of the new breed of connected PNDs is that the market has been educated to expect very low prices,” said analyst Caroline Chow. “These devices offer useful live information for the driver, but come at a premium that few are willing to pay, especially in the current climate.”

A consumer survey run by Canalys in November revealed that more than a third of PND owners described real-time traffic as a “must have” in their next device – above any other feature listed. A fifth of the 2,400 consumers surveyed said that, in the previous six months, they had got stuck in traffic and wished they had taken a different route more than six times – 10% said it had happened more than 10 times.

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Engadget: Garmin’s CeBIT showcase was overflowing with Earthlings. Many of which, as you could likely guess, were swooning over the recently announced nüvi 1200 and 1300 series navigators.

The hippest addition to these two are the public transit maps, which inform individuals on foot what subway / tube to hop on, where to get off, which bus to take from there and how long to stay on.

Frankly, it’s a Euro-tripper’s dream come true.

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Register Hardware: Another Nüvifone has been unveiled by Garmin-Asus: the G60, which appears to have been built for less technologically-mind fellows.

That’s because the G60’s described as an “easy-to-use” device that helps answer all those perplexing questions like “Where am I?”, “Where am I going” and “How do I get home?”. For example, press the “Where am I?” icon, and the G60 will pinpoint your current location on the screen. This can be done while making a call and additional information, such as the nearest hospital, is also displayed.

Equipped with quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge coverage, 7.2Mb/s HSDPA 3G and Wi-Fi support, the G60 has a large 3.5in display that features just three primary icons: Call, Search and View Map.

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Register Hardware: A partnership between Garmin and Asus to develop mobile phone-cum-satnav devices has resulted in a new addition to the existing Nüvifone range: the M20.

The M20’s described by the partnership, known as Garmin-Asus, as an “all-in-one phone, mobile web browser and premium navigation system”. Although the Windows Mobile-based M20 supports HSDPA connections of up to 7.2Mb/s, it also offers Wi-Fi compatibility, tri-band GSM/GPRS/Edge and Bluetooth support.

The soft Qwerty keyboard supposedly makes typing out SMS, MMS or email messages a doddle. While location-based services, such as weather forecasts and film times, apparently sit at the device’s core to further extend its standard satnav capabilities. You’ll be able to choose between 4GB or 8GB of on-board storage, which should come in handy for saving pictures taken using the M20’s 3Mp camera.

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Electricpig: The mobile world can no doubt look a little frightening to newcomers, but Garmin is hoping Asus will help hold its hand for the launch of the nuvifone G60 touch-a-thon that’s expected later this year.

Garmin has been teasing about the nuvifone for sometime now but with its new strategic alliance in place with Asus it looks set for launch in the first half of 2009.

Not only does it sport a 3.5in touchscreen and 3.5G phone innards – so you’ve got calling and internet surfing covered – but as you’d expect from Garmin there’s also GPS baked in too.

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GPS Business News: New data from market research firm GfK revealed by Mio and French news portal Mobinaute indicates that Mio Technologies gained serious traction for its PND products in October and November 2008.

In volume Mio/Navman had 16.8% market share in November against 14% for Garmin. In value Mio did 13.6% against 13% for Garmin. November was the second month in a row Mio performed better than Garmin, said GfK.

During the Fourth quarter of 2008 Mio has been offering a €30 mail-in rebate on a large range of products as well as one year free map update. Both marketing operations have been extended until the end of January 2009.

Despite these aggressive offers, TomTom remains the big dominant player in France with 54.3% market share in volume and a whopping 61,9% in value.

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NaviGadget: Garmin announced the eTrex Vista H – a low-cost handheld GPS receiver plus navigator.

eTrex Vista H – like we mentioned – is an entry level unit but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful. It has a high sensitivity receiver that can get satellite fix under even dense tree canopy.

It includes an electronic compass and barometric altimeter as well which can be quite important if you’re outdoors a lot. eTrex Vista H also features USB interface which will give you access to a whopping 24MB of internal memory – allowing you to add detailed topo maps.

Also announced by Garmin was the eTrex Legend H – another low-cost handheld GPS receiver plus navigator. eTrex Legend H also has a high sensitivity receiver (which you can see near the top of the unit – white square box) that can get satellite fix under dense tree canopy or deep canyons.

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SlipperyBrick: Garmin has a new GPS unit for motorcyclists coming out in the first quarter of this year. It is called the zūmo 660.

The Garmin zūmo 660 is designed with motorcyclists in mind, said Garmin. It has a 4.3” sunlight-readable and customizable touchscreen display, “glove-friendly design” with left-handed controls and oversized touchscreen buttons.

Other features of this GPS unit include Bluetooth A2DP support, lane assist with junction view, turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions and multiple routing options.

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Electronista: Garmin Asia Pacific marketing director Tony An revealed that the company’s nuvifone will just be the first device in a series of phones.

Where the original touchscreen, GPS-focused phone is now said to be due in the spring, An adds that the firm will develop multiple phones based on Google’s Android platform to ship sometime in the second half of 2009.

Details of the phones themselves are unavailable but should likely focus heavily on GPS navigation and will be helped by the built-in presence of Google Maps.

The hardware won’t be manufactured by Garmin by itself but will instead contracted out, according to Garmin, though which firms will build the phones isn’t named.

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CrunchGear: Garmin is expecting ‘08 to be a banner year despite the piss-poor economy.

When all the beans are counted and the ducks are lined up, the largest GPS manufacturer expects to have shipped 50% more GPS units this year verse in previous years.

If Garmin does hit that 50% more figure, that would result in the firm shipping out over 18 million GPS devices.

This is despite that fact that other GPS makers are throwing in the towel and people are losing their homes. Apparently, none of that matters for Garmin.

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TrustedReviews: Well we were greatly excited about the Garmin nüvifone when it was first announced. The problem is that was almost one year ago… still, all good things?

Could be, because scurrying out the back door late on Friday evening was Garmin’s official submission documents for passing the nüvifone through the FCC – you know, that US commission which tests and OKs electronics products nearly ready for release.

Predictably, little was given away during the submission but we did learn a few interesting nuggets. Firstly that Garmin has international plans for the handset and secondly, that it is being referred to as the ‘G60′.

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