PND-Centric Garmin-Asus' Windows Phone 7 Will Arrive Q1 2011

Garmin-Asus has confirmed that, while the company expects to release smartphones running Windows Phone 7, there won't be any handsets from them using the Microsoft OS until 2011.  Speaking at the Singapore launch of the nuvifone A50 and A10, ASUS business development manager for handheld sales Fei Yen told CNET Asia that while the company has engineers working on Microsoft's platform at the moment, there are "no plans to launch Windows Phone this year."

Instead, the new WP7 handsets will follow on after Garmin-Asus' latest batch of Android devices; according to DigiTimes, the Microsoft smartphones will drop in Q1 2011.  Garmin-Asus was named as an initial hardware partner for Windows Phone 7, but whereas other companies in the same position have targeted the 2010 holidays for their first releases, they have instead waited until they can polish the GPS/PND experience:

"We want to be more focused, so we do a lot of integration in terms of the software and maps. This kind of integration takes time, so we won't launch a lot of models like other competitors. We want to be focused and provide the best location-based services for our customers" Fei Yen, Garmin-Asus