Oh, nuvifone. How we loved you and forgot you. Now that almost every featurephone comes with GPS navigation, both of your models might finally launch on AT&T. Just think if you would have got your act together a year ago, you could have ruled the market before there was a market.

In January of 2008, Garmin announced the Nuvifone. They were a bit light on details at the time (Who would offer it? How much would it cost?) but promised that it would be on the shelves by the third quarter of the same year.

Well, that quarter passed. Then the next one. Jump forward a few more, and we’re in the third quarter of the next year – but the phone still isn’t available. Well, not outside of Taiwan, at least. As of today, it has been 1 year, 6 months, and 6 days since Garmin announced their phone. During today’s conference call, Garmin announced that the nuvifone will be available stateside in the fourth quarter (though they still wont disclose which carriers are involved). Even if they get it out by the first day of Q4 (September 1st), that’s 580 days from announcement to launch. Does anyone care anymore?

Do you remember where you were back on January 30th of 2008? CrunchGear was at a Garmin event in New York City watching the GPS company announce its very own smartphone. Fast forward to today, and the device is finally about to ship. Two devices, actually — the Linux-based nuvifone G60 and the nuvifone M20, which runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.

In light of MWC next week, Garmin-Asus has made a full announcement about the upcoming nuvifone product line. Which, btw, isn’t nearly as fun as spy shots and rumors, but we’ll take it. The original G60 that we have been hearing about for nearly a year seems like it will finally be released and might be a solid contender judging by the specs. Garmin-Asus is announcing a new player however, in the smallish WinMo 6.1, M20 handheld that naturally runs Garmin’s mapping software which might make a larger splash at MWC than its big brother.