The Olathe company on Wednesday introduced a touchscreen wireless phone that combines features of Garmin’s Nuvi portable navigators with those found in cutting-edge smartphones.

How do Garmin executives describe the new device, named the Nuvifone?

They say Nuvifone is “our future.”

“This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and chief operating officer, who unveiled the phone at a posh, invitation-only event at Gotham Hall in Manhattan.

“We believe the Nuvifone will change the way people view converged devices in the future,” Pemble said.

The Nuvifone signals a sea change for Garmin, the leading U.S. manufacturer of portable navigation devices. The company is entering the crowded mobile phone market, an industry dominated by such corporate giants as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and, most recently, Apple.

Garmin, in fact, will be competing with the company that supplies its digital maps. Finland’s Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, is acquiring Chicago mapmaker Navteq in a move to add more navigation features to mobile phones.

But the move into wireless phones could be critical for Garmin.

While navigation on mobile phones isn’t new — several companies including Garmin sell navigation services that can be accessed on mobile phones — new research projects that phones with built-in navigation will soon overshadow the traditional portable GPS market.

Telematics Research Group issued a study this month projecting that navigation-enabled phones will outsell portable navigation devices in 2009.

Garmin and its chief competitor, Netherlands-based TomTom, have been rumored for months to be working on mobile phones.

Another Garmin competitor, Mio Technology, said Wednesday it was working to develop a navigation phone with mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm.

“This represents a great opportunity to serve a new expanded group of customers,” said Min Kao, Garmin’s chief executive officer.

The Garmin device, which will begin shipping later this year, is a sleek silver phone, camera, wireless Web surfer and MP3 music player dominated by a 3½-inch touchscreen display.

The Nuvifone includes navigation features that are standard in Garmin’s best-seller, the Nuvi. The phone offers voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions, street maps of the U.S. and Europe, and a database of millions of businesses, entertainment venues, parks and landmarks.

It also includes Google’s local search, which expands the potential points of interest, allows users to see ratings of businesses near them, and offers directions to a selected business or destination.

The Nuvifone includes two features relatively new to Garmin navigation — a “where am I” button that tells the user the nearest address, intersection and nearby emergency facilities, and another that can be used to find a lost car in large parking lots.

Beyond navigation, the Nuvifone offers features that have become common in smartphones, such as text messaging and e-mail, as well as some others that aren’t as common.

The phone’s three-megapixel camera, besides shooting video, goes beyond the ordinary. Photos shot with a Nuvifone are embedded with the location where the photo was taken, a process called “geotagging.” Users also can take a photo of a bar or restaurant as they enter, send it by phone to another Nuvifone user, and the recipient’s phone will guide him to the location.

Garmin is keeping other features of the phone, including its price, under wraps until it is launched this fall.

Garmin executives said they were negotiating with wireless companies around the world, but currently aren’t announcing any carrier partners.

Sprint Nextel, however, won’t be among them.

The initial Nuvifone uses 3.5G technology, a high-speed wireless system incompatible with Sprint but used in Europe and Asia by many companies, and in some areas of the U.S. by AT&T Wireless. The phone also will work, although not at high speeds, on T-Mobile’s network.

Pemble said Garmin has not ruled out a Nuvifone using WiMax, the fourth-generation wireless network planned by Sprint.

However, there is no indication how long it would take to build a WiMax network.

“Once we have a footprint for WiMax we could launch a WiMax version,” he said.

Garmin executives contend that the Nuvifone isn’t a competitor to Apple’s popular iPhone, but comparisons are likely.

Apple and Garmin are smaller players in the massive consumer electronics market. Both lead their respective industries.

Both of the companies offer slim, sleek devices that use a 3.5-inch widescreen touchscreen instead of a standard keypad or keyboard. Both offer navigation, play music and allow Web browsing in HTML.

The Nuvifone is narrower. The iPhone is thinner.

Both also can be used either vertically or horizontally, with the device recognizing the change and automatically adjusting the screen. The Nuvifone will be a 3.5G phone. Apple is planning to launch a high-speed iPhone later this year as well.

But while the iPhone and other smartphones have some navigation features, navigation is a central part of the Nuvifone, Garmin officials said.

The iPhone, on the other hand, was built as a music and video phone, while also offering features such as navigation.

Garmin executives said the company focused on making the Nuvifone as simple to operate as the company’s portable navigation devices.

Garmin executives said the phone already has solved one complaint users have about phone-based navigation software. Navigation features stop when a call is made or answered. The Nuvifone continues navigation while users chat.

The phone’s opening screen has three on-screen buttons — phone, search and navigation — and four smaller buttons for Web browsing, messaging, e-mail and other features.

When the phone is docked in a vehicle mount, the GPS turns on automatically, the navigation menu pops up, and its speakerphone is activated.

It includes access to Garmin Connect, which offers real-time traffic information, nearby fuel prices, weather forecasts, stock prices, news and local events.

The Nuvifone is not Garmin’s first foray into the wireless phone business.

In 1998, the company launched a line of phones dubbed NavTalk, which included features not offered by other manufacturers until years later.

The original NavTalk, for instance, allowed users to beam their location to other NavTalk users, and also included a fleet-tracking service for companies.

A version of the phone for pilots was launched about the same time.

Garmin launched the NavTalk GSM in 2002, a phone sold through China’s CTC Telecom.

The project was shelved in 2003 when sales didn’t meet expectations.

“We quite frankly were way ahead of the curve,” Pemble said. “The technology hadn’t caught up to where we are today.”

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