Besides launching the first ever Garmin mobile phone, the GPS-maker is also working to release a Google Android-based device in the second half on 2009, revealed the company's Asia Pacific marketing directory Tony An.

The Asus-made Nuvifone, set to be Garmin's first mobile phone, was delayed in July 2008, in order to be launched in the second quarter of 2009, at least in Taiwan. There is no information regarding the second phone, but it could potentially be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in February. The Android-based phone is to be solely built by Garmin itself, according to An.

Garmin joined the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of companies who contribute to the open-source environment relative to the Google Android operating system, earlier this month. Upon speculation that the Nuvifone would run on Google Android, the company clarified that it will run on a modified version of Linux, and not Android.

[via Unwired View, DigiTimes]