Nokia Exec Promises Windows 8 Tablets Next Year

The Head of Nokia France has told a French newspaper that the company plans to release a Windows 8 powered tablet in the summer of next year.

Paul Amsellem told Les Echos newspaper, “In June 2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8”, in an interview published today.

An Interesting Opportunity

Nokia has previously said that Windows 8 for tablets could be an interesting opportunity, but has said it has no launch plans. A company spokesman told Reuters, “We have not announced any specific plans as it relates to tablets.”

Microsoft has pledged that the operating system will work equally well with tablets as it does with traditional PCs and can switch between a tiled interface similar to that of Windows Phone and a more recognisable desktop mode.  Microsoft hopes this approach will give it an inroad into the tablet market.

A Nokia Windows 8 tablet would hardly be outside the realms of possibility given the strategic partnership that the Finnish manufacturer agreed with Microsoft to produce phones running the Windows Phone operating system in February.

However earlier this year, it was speculated that Nokia would opt for either the MeeGo or Android operating systems for any future tablets in an effort to be distinctive from the competition.

But rumours soon circulated that Nokia was working on a Windows 8 tablet as well as a 3D Smartphone for Microsoft and the manufacturer has since unveiled its first phones running the Windows Phone operating system, the Nokia Lumia 710 and 800, at the Nokia World event in London last month.

Nokia has previously dabbled in PCs, launching a netbook in 2009, when that format was fashionable. However, Nokia failed to price it competitively and its failure, along with its very existence, was eclipsed by the arrival of Apple’s iPad.