Garminphone Sales Sluggish at T-Mobile - Analyst

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

Garmin's latest navigation based mobile phone is reported to be seeing sluggish sales, with an estimated 20,000 units sold since the handset went on sale in the USA just under a month ago. Morgan Keegan analyst Yair Reiner said in a research note that the figures are based on visits to around 50 T-Mobile stores. The phone is currently only available from T-Mobile and Radio Shack.

Reiner said despite the low sales, he found that most T-Mobile sales staff he spoke with liked the PND enabled smartphone.

"Before the product launched, many sales associates spoke with enthusiasm about the device, stating it had by far the best navigation functionality of any mobile phone. However, even several days after release, many stores had not yet put the handset out on display, which was probably not very beneficial for sales. Others had not sold any despite displays being setup and several sold a few (less than 5). As of the beginning of this week stores have yet to show any meaningful sales numbers with maybe 5 sold on average per store since launch."

Reiner said he was lowering his expectations for Garmin's annual sales to reflect the slow sales of the Garminfone. He did however raise his prediction for profits based on stronger sales of vehicle-based systems and outdoor/fitness products.

 

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