Nokia may be working on a Windows 8 tablet, due out by the end of the year, according to some sources. We’ve long wished that Nokia would jump into the tablet game as their hardware design has rarely managed to disappoint. However, with Nokia’s commitment to Windows Phone 7 last year, the company was put into an awkward position.
Microsoft built Windows Phone 7 from the ground up as a phone operating system. Even though I’d love to see the beautiful and smooth Windows Phone 7 operating system on a 7″ or 10″ tablet, Microsoft doesn’t intend for the operating system to be used that way. Thus, Nokia at the time couldn’t rely on Microsoft for a sufficiently touch-friendly operating system.
Nokia had been involved for a long time with the open-source operating system, Maemo, which ran on their ‘internet tablet’ series of devices, but Maemo failed to achieve anything close to mainstream success. Since then, Maemo was merged with Moblin (and Intel project) to form Meego. As you may know, Nokia formerly abandoned Meego in favor of Windows Phone 7.
So what’s Nokia to do? Well, for a long time, they did nothing in the tablet realm. But now, with Microsoft offering Windows 8, which is half-dedicated to touchscreen computing, there might be hope for a Nokia tablet indeed.
Digitimes, which has a so-so record of truth in rumors, claims that Nokia may be launching a tablet that will arrive in Q4 of 2012. Interestingly, Digitimes also claims that Nokia’s tablet will be a 10″ device and use the ARM platform. Windows 8 on ARM will only be compatible with applications specifically designed for it, so you won’t be able to run any existing x86 or x64 desktop applications.
I’m a bit worried about the divide between Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 when put in the context of a user who wants to buy into an ecosystem. Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 share similar looking interfaces, but deep down they are significantly different and do not have apps that work between the two operating systems. It’s possible that Microsoft is working on Windows Phone 8 which will bring the two in line with one another in terms of app compatibility, but currently it doesn’t appear that Microsoft wants to do that.
This will create a big problem for your average consumer who, given the way that Android, iOS, and even WebOS, work, has every right to think, ‘I’ve got a Windows phone and a Windows tablet, I’ll be able to use all the great apps from one on the other, and vice versa, right?”
via: Phone Arena
I have been thinking on the same lines about the applications to work that way. Or at least to be able to run regular Windows Software on to a Windows 8 Tablet. If this is not happening then, it is really something to think about.
I am all about creative and productive use of tablets.