It didn’t seem like such a bad idea at the time. The smartphone market was quickly heating up and one of the world’s best known GPS companies buddied up with one of the world’s best computer makers. Combine their expertise and develop some great products. Well, things don’t always go the way you plan them.

When Garmin and Asus first forged the deal to partner up on some smartphone collaborations, the agreement was supposed to hold up for at least two years and that 24-month window is quickly coming to a close. The joint venture is rumored to be falling apart as of this coming January.

This comes by way of the Economic Daily, a Chinese publication, which is also quick to point out that this doesn’t mean the two companies will stop working with one another. The Garmin-Asus co-branding is probably out the window, but we hear that Asus will keep making GPS-enabled smartphones (under the Asus brand) that will use Garmin for navi and mapping software.

I don’t think the deal was doomed from the start, but the nuvifone devices that eventually did make it to market quickly got lost in the shuffle.

SOURCE: Economic Daily via Engadget