Nokia To Release A 10-Inch Windows 8 Tablet In Q4?

Nokia will use its partnership with Microsoft to enter the tablet computing market later this year, Digitimes reports.

The tablet will supposedly feature a 10-inch screen, a dual-core Qualcomm processor and will run Windows 8. Sources at upstream component suppliers said the device would be launched in “the fourth quarter of 2012 at the earliest”.

Nokia’s Windows 8 tablet

Production of the tablets would reportedly be outsourced to Taiwanese firm Compal Electronics, with “the first batch of shipments to top 200,000 units”.

In Nokia’s 2011 filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company emphasised that competitors succeeded by developing ecosystems to broaden device appeal and capability.

“Success for hardware manufacturers is increasingly shaped by their ability to build, catalyse or be part of a competitive ecosystem, where different industry participants, such as hardware manufacturers, software providers, developers, publishers, entertainment providers, advertisers and e-commerce specialists are forming increasingly large communities of mutually beneficial partnerships in order to bring their offerings to the market,” Nokia said.

“A vibrant ecosystem creates value for consumers, giving them access to a rich and broad range of user experiences. As a result, the competitive landscape is increasingly characterised in terms of a ‘war of ecosystems’ rather than a battle between individual hardware manufacturers or products.”

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company’s CEO Stephen Elop reiterated this in his speech by targeting rival iOS and Android platforms. Nokia’s tablet push would see it become one of Microsoft’s ‘Windows on ARM’ partners alongside Asus, and would be part of an ambitious attempt to break into a tablet market so heavily dominated by Apple.

Nokia last year announced that it shipped a million Windows Phone handsets and is in the process of phasing out its Symbian OS despite recently launching the 41-megapixel PureView 808.

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