Nokia is going to become part of the tablet market, though a specific release date and product specifications have not been announced. Stephen Elop, chief executive officer, Nokia, disclosed this in an interview. He also said there were several tablets already in the market, and that if Nokia did go on to produce a tablet, it would be a unique one.
Stephen Elop said, “We have a number of options in the tablet computing space given the changing strategy that we have. For example, we could take advantage of Microsoft technology and software and build a Windows-oriented tablet, or we could do things with some of the other software assets that we have. Our team right now is assessing what’s the right tablet strategy for Nokia.”
He added, “I’m not going to announce a tablet here today. But as a high level point, a connected digital experience will increasingly define what consumers are looking for. It’s important for us to play across that space. We have to address that whole space.”
About the smartphones, he said the Nokia Windows phones would arrive by 2011 end, preferably before the Christmas holidays, and he clarified he was already using one such smartphone, though he didn’t reveal the device during the interview.
When Stephen Elop joined Nokia a few months ago he assessed that Symbian would take too long to take on the established smartphone operating systems; whereas if Nokia adopted Android it would find it difficult to differentiate its products in the market.
The only logical conclusion left for Nokia was to partner with Microsoft and its Windows Phone platform. He also said he was competing with Google and Apple and not with other Windows Phone producers as he was primarily interested in making the Windows Phone ecosystem stronger, which could only be done by working with Samsung and other companies that produce Windows phones.