“Just months after selling its ailing handsets business to Microsoft, the Finnish company is planning to go back into the consumer market with a new tablet,” Matti Huuhtanen reports for The Associated Press. “It will launch a 7.9-inch device early next year in China, the world’s biggest market, before selling it elsewhere.”
“The device will be manufactured by Foxconn, which makes Apple’s handsets. And it will operate Android instead of the Windows software Nokia used on its cellphones when it began a partnership with Microsoft in 2011. That partnership ended unsuccessfully — in April, Nokia sold its cellphones unit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion,” Huuhtanen reports. “Sebastian Nystrom, head of at Nokia’s technologies unit, described the N1 tablet as ‘a new beginning for Nokia.'”
“The aluminum-cased tablet uses Google’s Android Lollipop operating system, and will retail for some $250,” Huuhtanen reports. “‘It’s pointing in the right direction, but there are some real challenges,’ said Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics, near London. ‘It doesn’t have the distribution channels that others like Samsung and Apple enjoy, and nobody is making any profits in Android tablets at the moment.'”
MacDailyNews Take: A textbook example of Trade Dress Infringement, if there ever was one.
“After holding the No.1 spot in cellphones for 14 years, Nokia wasn’t able to meet the challenge when Apple in 2007 introduced the iPhone, and also began to lose the competition to cheaper Asian manufacturers,” Huuhtanen reports. “‘We are pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers’ hands,’ said Nystrom. He hinted Nokia was also interested in producing an Android smartphone. That can’t happen before 2016, however, as the Microsoft deal included a commitment that Nokia not enter the smartphone business before then.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We have only one question for the “leadership” of Nokia:
Exactly how high are you?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sparkles” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
AnandTech reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPad Air 2: Delivers the best tablet experience – November 7, 2014
Fortune reviews Apple’s new iPad Air 2: Best for work, not play; shines as a PC replacement – November 5, 2014
Gruber: High performance iPad Air 2 marks a turning point – October 22, 2014
T-Mobile to offer $0 down on iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3; pre-orders start October 22nd – October 21, 2014
Sales prospects for Apple’s iPad Air 2 look good – October 17, 2014
Apple’s new iPad Air 2 is 13% thinner than a pencil; Touch ID a boon for enterprise users – October 16, 2014
Apple unveils iPad Air 2 – the thinnest, most powerful iPad ever – and iPad mini 3, both with Touch ID – October 16, 2014