Nokia is developing a Windows 8 tablet, according to remarks by its design chief that ended up in a Finnish magazine.
Nokia is developing a tablet presumably
running Windows 8, according to comments by company design chief Marko
Ahtisaari.
Ahtisaari told the Finnish magazine
Kauppalehti Optio that we are working on a tablet, according to Reuters. He also suggested he spends a third of
his time on the unnamed device.
This isnt the first time similar
rumors have emerged: A March 12 article in DigiTimes suggested that Nokia would launch a
Windows 8 tablet sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012, complete with a
10-inch screen and a Qualcomm dual-core chipset. That information came from
unnamed sources among upstream component suppliers, who predicted that
Nokias venture into the tablet PC market will also further intensify
competition among non-iPad tablet PC vendors.
Nokia and Microsoft already have a
tight relationship centered on Windows Phone, which replaced Symbian and other
homegrown platforms as the formers primary mobile operating system.
In addition, Nokia clearly recognizes
the need to expand onto form factors beyond smartphones. In a form filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission March 8, the company suggested that
adjacent products such as tablets could potentially threaten its attempts to
gain market share in smartphones, since consumers and businesses increasingly
bind themselves into multiple-device ecosystems from a single vendor.
If our competitors succeed in
capturing markets where we are not currently present, this could erode our
competitive position, read one section of the filing. For instance, we
currently do not have tablets or other adjacent products in our mobile product
portfolio, which may result in our inability to compete effectively in the
tablet and developing multi-screen market segments in the future or forgoing
those potential growth opportunities.
And on top of that, Nokias engineers
have demonstrated a willingness to experiment with technology. Its recently unveiled
PureView smartphone, for example, features a 41-megapixel camera sensor backed
by new recording and image technology.
In 2012 so far, Nokia has concentrated
its public efforts on establishing itself as the pre-eminent purveyor of
Windows Phones, having introduced models at the high (the Lumia 900), medium
(the Lumia 710) and low (Lumia 610) price points.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is ramping up
Windows 8 for its final release sometime in late 2012. The upcoming operating
system features a Start screen of colorful, touch-friendly tiles linked to
applications, the better to operate on tablets.
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Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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