Sebastien Nyström, head of products business at Nokia, proclaimed that Nokia is not dead when introducing the new Nokia N1 tablet and Z launcher app at Slush 2014.
So what’s it all about? A tablet with the first reversible USB-running Android with an app aggregator tool that learns which apps you use, and when, and presents them to you accordingly. So maybe there’s a set of morning, afternoon and evening apps that appear on the front page of your tablet based on when you use them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJmthxJV5Q
Why is this announcement interesting and important for Nokia? I’ve seen comments online that this is nothing but an iPad copy or that running Android is some kind of slight to the Microsoft purchase of their phone business, but I disagree. Nokia was a brand name staple in the mobile phone industry and I believe most people in this industry were sad when it lost its way and ended up being sold. Nokia led the mobile phone industry in 1998 and its list of technology firsts include these examples and many more:
- 1992 – Nokia 100 series, the first family of handportable phones for all analog networks.
- 1992 – Nokia 6050 car phone, the first GSM car phone
- 1992 – Nokia 1011, the first GSM handportable phone
- 1992 – Nokia 6000, the first TDMA phone
- 1994 – Nokia 2100 series, the first digital handportable phones supporting data, fax and the Short Message Service.
- 1997 – Nokia 3810, the first mobile phone specially designed for Asian consumers, with a large full-graphics display and Asian language interfaces.
- 1997 – Nokia 2180, the first dual-mode CDMA phone with a CDMA chip set developed by Nokia.
- 1998 – Nokia 5100 series, the first mobile phones with user-changeable covers.
- 1998 – Nokia 9110 Communicator, the first hand-held mobile terminal supporting wireless imaging.
- 1999 – Nokia 6185, the first tri-mode/dual band CDMA phone.
Now all of this history belongs to Microsoft, not Nokia. And that’s why this announcement is interesting and important to me. It shows that the new Nokia is still a consumer brand and has the intellectual property to continue to innovate in this area. So maybe it’s a small step, but it’s a first step to innovate in the consumer mobility space in the future.
I had the opportunity to hold the N1 and try it out at Slush 2014. It’s very lightweight and great looking with an easy to use Z launcher and on-screen scribbling for ease of movement between pages and applications. Check it out.
