Elop Notes a 7 or 10 Inch Nokia Tablet Is On Their Roadmap

The jury is still out concerning the long term success of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, but Nokia, who famously went all in on a Windows Phone 8 gamble when it ditched its old Symbian mobile OS for Microsoft’s new one for its phones, is looking like it made a savvy decision. The company’s Lumia handsets are nice pieces of hardware, with the primary limitation being the relatively small number of apps available (which is a number that is changing rapidly); but if you want a Windows Phone 8 device these, you’re probably going to be getting a Nokia phone because the whole package is an excellent one. Now, Nokia may be expanding further into the mobile market by introducing tablets to the mix.

Nothing is official, but in comments made to reporters in Sydney, Nokia chief Stephen Elop said that the company would be expanding its product portfolio. The Australian Financial Review quoted him as saying, “We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely. We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”


He noted that there were pros and cons to both the 7-inch and larger form factors (read: 10-inches or so), and we wouldn’t be surprised to see Nokia eventually come out with a 7-incher running Windows Phone 8 or Windows RT and a larger iPad competitor sporting Windows RT or Windows 8.


It’s tough to make a good tablet, and the mobile path is littered with entries that were either half-baked or simply couldn’t capture users’ hearts and minds, but if you had to bet on one tablet being a success, it would have the same title and DNA as Nokia’s Lumia line. The only thing potentially holding it back might be that Windows OS, which hasn’t proven especially popular just yet.