Nokia Produce Windows Tablets:
Big news in Nokia land in the last few days with the arrival of their new Nokia/Windows smartphones coming in the form of the Lumia Series.
So what next for the collaboration of tech giants of old?
Well if news in the FT (financial Times) is anything to go by, a recent illuminating interview with Stephen Elop the CEO of Nokia could mean that the Finnish company are also in line to manufacturer the new Windows 8 Tablet range…now this could be exciting.
With Apple’s iPad being the unstoppable force in this niche it will be very interesting to see if Nokia’s eye for design and build quality will marry well with the new Windows 8 O/S, which in my eyes looks like promising a mix of innovation and actually useful features.
How big, small and fast is not that important if things do not work well:
As Apple have proved time and time again, fancy is no good if it is not functional; speed and other boastful factors are not that important ultimately to users of mobile devices
Elop is quoted saying:
“We’re not commenting on specific plans for tablets, but one of the things that we are excited about in terms of support for the Windows Phone are the announcements that Microsoft made around Windows 8 for tablets and personal computers, When you see the user experience from the Nokia Lumia environment appearing on hundreds of millions of tablets and PCs in the future, you can see that there is a clear synergy between all those environments. So that presents an interesting opportunity for Nokia.”
Does this translate to Nokia manufacturing the new Windows tablet range?
I think both corporations would be stupid not to work together from day one on this project now that Nokia have decided to opt for a third party O/S on their devices…But will they want their own range as they are doing with Windows phone O/S? or just go head to head as a major force with Windows as the O/S and Nokia as the manufacturer with one flagship tablet?…This I suspect would be the best way forward, but not sure of the economics for both firms involved long term.
Nokia’s Journey:
In the interview Elop also muted that the new range will not be the make or break of the Nokia brand, but is the first step in a general shift and transformation for the company from old to new.
Nokia A Brand To Love?
Nokia have that certain quality that any brand would dearly love: A seemingly ethical business operation that produces high quality goods, and does not come across as brash and crass in any way. I ask any of you readers here if you have any serious negativity towards Nokia and my hunch is no responses will be given to the contrary other than to sort it out!
Yes Nokia, I sense people want you to succeed and bring back another decent competitor to the mobile device market, after HTC, Samsung And Apple plus the occasional others.
Time still of the essence:
One thing I am acutely aware of after switching from Apple to Android this year is that I do not want to do this often, mainly due to setting up contacts/settings and getting used to a new phones O/S…I sense that people will pick one of the big three operating systems and stick with this for a large part of the next few years purely for ease.
So getting in now may give them a chance to allow people to trial there new O/S and convert people who are not yet hooked to Android or iOS.
If there is a way of replicating everything from O/S to O/S in the future then this may benefit all concerned and level that playing field out for contract renewals, but I doubt Apple will play ball in letting competitors easily do this…they love to lock you into proprietary software and applications as we all know.
Android the target
With Android coming on leaps and bounds in terms of market penetration it is surely this multi platform beast that is the target for Nokia and Windows though I wonder if the more niche Apple iOS should be more the model to look towards?
Anthony Munns