The basics, from Bloomberg:

Profit, excluding a gain from a sale of Tele Atlas NV shares, was 94 cents a share, compared with the $1.01 average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 23 percent to $911.7 million, Garmin said in a statement today, falling short of the $959.1 million analysts had projected.

Sales expectations were cut in half to 23% based on consumers holding back. Further, with so many PNDs already in the market, competition from TomTom, prices have dropped to encourage those without a device to buy.

Shares fell $5.91, or 13 percent, to $39.15 this morning, the largest drop in five years.

The Nuvifone will be delayed for at least 6 months until the first half of 2009; it was originally to be out this fall and account for 10% of sales. There's also speculation the proposed sale price of the Nuvifone, about $300, will drop to match the new iPhone.

This from CokePubandBar.co.uk, which holds a CocaCola copyright:

Garmin offers a digital version of the "Good Pub Guide" for their Global Positioning System (GPS) gadgets. Some, like Margaret Decker, from the Scottish Campaign against Irresponsible Drivers, think that's irresponsible. "It is irresponsible to offer customers directions to pubs. Police campaign to stop drink-driving but the number caught doesn't seem to be falling."

Garmin gives more credit to those who use the system and the database. I wonder if Garmin (and its peers) would get the same reaction if it offered a database of locations of legal gun sellers?

DSUS Technology of China will offer a GPS-integrated rear-view mirror featuring Navigon Mobile Navigator 6.5, "Reality View and 12 map updates from FreshMaps."

The DSUS SmartMirror has a four-inch screen for GPS maps, built-in Bluetooth capability and a back-up camera. Price: $799.

- US News/Jalopnick

British insurance company Direct Line carried out the survey for the newspaper The Mirror about satnavs and accidents. Highlights:

300,000 motorists have crashed because of a device
1.5 million drivers have suddenly veered in busy traffic while following a device's directions.
Five million have been sent the wrong way down a one-way street.
One in 10 drivers with a satnav says following its instructions made them take a dangerous or illegal turn.

The winner in the 989-mile "race" which included finding 12 locations along the way in the UK was the "signs and directions" car. It "won" followed an hour and a half later by the "map" car and three hours later by the "satnav" car. Coverage in The Scotsman highlights the genders of the drivers if you are interested. Local knowledge is certainly best, and a mix of tools will work well for many drivers. The big challenge? People become slaves to their satnavs.

Rumors suggested that Garmin's Nuvi 8xx and 5xxx were built on Linux, but to date, the company didn't follow the GPL2 (open source license) which requires code written on that OS to be distributed with source code. Garmin got around to making the source code available today.

- PC World