Nokia CEO: We're Thinking Laptops
Last month we were a little surprised to hear Dell was considering entering the smartphone market. While the initial canned response to the odd news was “bandwagoner,” the same cannot be said for Nokia’s decision to enter the laptop field, or so we thought.
The last couple of months we’ve been caught up in smartphone fever but before that, it was all about netbooks. Everyone has a netbook, even that lightbulb company Sylvania took a shot at it. So it makes sense that Nokia wants to get in on the action, especially since everyone is saying cell phones and laptops are getting closer and closer together. The last week or so, tech sites have been full of reports about smartphones inching into MID/netbook territory.
Speaking to Finnish reporters, Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the company is "looking very actively" at entering the laptop market. "We are looking very actively also at this opportunity,” Kallasvuo said. “We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging."
"Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication," he said.
Nokia's the world's largest maker of cell phones, and it wouldn't be a drastic leap to figure that the Finnish company would like to replicate some of its mobiles success for laptops.
No details other than the admitance that the company is actually looking at producing laptops at some point but we’ll keep you posted. In the mean time, what do you guys think?
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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tenor77 My $.02Reply
The general key to business is to be early to the game, not late. I'm not saying the demand for Laptops/netbooks (though the netbook bubble is going to pop) is going away but they're going to have to give something good to make a profitable venture into the market. -
enewmen Nokia is already working on the next gen N810 (RX-51) kernel-2.6.27 which will have near all the capability of an EeePC with a OMAP3430 CPU 600 MHz & DSP 530 MHz., 4+" 800x480 screen, GPS, FM transmitter, accelerometer, OpenGL, 5mp camera + VGA webcam, QWERTY, TV-Out, a REAL Linux OS/REAL browser, etc etc.Reply
So, this thing will lean towards the MIDs with a SIM slot to get CELL wireless internet.
There will also be a similar device called N97 which is Symbian S60 5th edition based and can actually make normal calls.
I'm actually very excited about these developments.
2 cents worth. -
solymnar To me the real barrier to serious mobile productivity and function is having a comfortable keyboard that's easy to carry.Reply
If they market that phone and have a collapsible keyboard you can use as an accessory that's a better fit. Otherwise I just don't see you whipping out a netbook to make a phone call. The keyboard (and possibly larger screen) need to be separate to keep the phone functionality intact. Having a light, compact keyboard (with a mount so that the screen is upright and steady freeing your hands) would help with the aspect of actually using it as a portable computer device. -
Nokia's the closest company I know to Apple in terms of quality and attention to detail in design. Yet their products have a Nokia character that is very distinct from Apple's. There's obviously an overabundance of cheaply made, shove-new-models-out-door-fast as-possibly-can, generic laptops out there. Thinkpads are no longer nearly what they were when made by IBM. Nokia laptops sounds like a fantastic idea!Reply
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Rock on Nokia, The products are really good and it will be fantastic to have their innovation and style in the netbook/laptop market, and a way of expanding symbian os for allReply
A VERY GOOD thing!!!!!!!!