Nokia and Qualcomm poised for W8 tablets
Finnish vendor's French chief says the device will launch by June, new Snapdragon lead candidate to power it
Published: 16 November, 2011
READ MORE: Nokia | Processor | Tablet | Windows Phone
Nokia's French chief has let slip that the firm plans to launch a Windows 8 tablet as early as the second quarter next year, and will almost certainly have to work with Qualcomm on the chip side. This could be an important launch for all involved, taking Nokia and Microsoft into the touch tablet space for the first time, and giving Qualcomm a headstart over challengers like Nvidia and TI, which are strong in Android slates. However, Microsoft's decision to wait until W8 to support ARM-based tablets raises a question over how much market share WP7, on which Nokia has staked its future, will ever achieve. The OS had only 1.5% share of the smartphone base in the third quarter, according to Gartner, and will have no chance to expand into new form factors.
If Nokia is planning to be first off the blocks with an ARM/W8 tablet, it will certainly need Qualcomm's help. The San Diego giant was loud in its support of the new OS at its launch and back in March, Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Internet Services, said the firm was preparing tools and software to make its Snapdragon processor attractive to the huge Windows developer community, and not just the programmers focused on smartphones. These efforts will almost certainly feed into Nokia's tablet plans, since Qualcomm looks set to be the first ARM-based vendor into the W8 sector, and the one with the most expertise.
Prevented by Microsoft's bar on large-screen WP7 devices from entering this space in 2011, the Finnish firm will need to make a splash next year. Its French chief, Paul Amsellem, said in a newspaper interview that the company will launch the product by June 2012, though official spokespeople stressed that there had been no formal announcement. Last month, at the Nokia World event where Lumia was unveiled, CEO Stephen Elop (and former Microsoft man) commented: "From an ecosystem perspective, there are benefits and synergies that exist between Windows and Windows Phone. We see that opportunity. We'll certainly consider those opportunities going forward."
Meanwhile, catering to a wide range of devices, Qualcomm has broadened the Snapdragon range and cast its eye on Nvidia's favorite market with the release of GamePack, a set of features and apps for the gaming sector, all optimized for Snapdragon (and comparable to Nvidia's own GameZone for its Tegra silicon).
The new models in the Snapdragon S4 range (the high end of the family) aim to lower design, engineering and inventory costs for a broad variety of devices including tablets, said Qualcomm, while supporting feature sets for multimedia, connectivity, camera, display, security, power management, browsing and natural user interface design. The products include the new Krait CPU, integrated with various combinations of modems supporting EV-DO, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, FD-LTE and Wi-Fi. Devices based on Snapdragon S4 processors are expected to appear in early 2012 and could well include the early W8 tablets.
Pages: 1 | 2
More NOKIA News
More APP STORE News
More FEMTOCELL News
COMMENTS
Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...
Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...
Satellite Phones: Will Dual Mode Help the Phoenix Rise from the Ashes?
Satellite phones have followed an arduous path since their much-hyped launch more than a decade ago. The hype was followed by an e...
