Nokia is not in a hurry to launch a competitor for the Apple’s iPad in near future, its chief executive officer Stephen Elop has indicated this in an interview with YLE TV of Finland.
He noted that there were close to 200 tablets already in the market and only one product was doing really well and that Nokia didn’t want to be just one more entrant into the tablet market.
At a time when the Nokia profits are declining gradually, its engineers are working really hard to come up with a product which would stand out in a crowded market. Nokia has also announced that it would reduce 4,000 jobs and the Symbian workers would be transferred to Accenture.
Nokia is still the largest handset maker in the world. The company is also weighing its options whether it should go for a Windows tablet or a MeeGo one. Some time ago, Nokia entered into an alliance with Microsoft to work together on mobile devices.
A good quality tablet operating system would greatly help Nokia in its quest to create a tablet that may take on iPad. It’s not that there were no tablets before the iPad, but it was Apple which first came out with a tablet that became an instant hit among the users. Apple understands the subtle things about the users that Android is catching up with.
The Nokia engineers have the backing of Stephen Elop to take their time to come up with a good product. The company looks to excel in all the three market segments of tablet including hardware, software and ecosystem. It believes it needs to sell huge quantities of tablets unlike the other rivals of iPad who are selling small quantities here and there.
The only doubtful area for Nokia is the presence of the right operating system for a tablet. It’s clear that Nokia would concentrate on launching a well timed strike on the giant and if that happens to be a dual strike with Microsoft, it would be better. Till the time comes, it’s preparation time for the Nokia engineers.