Nokia to make laptops?
By Dusan Belic on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 3:44 AM PST In Nokia, Rumors
It seems Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is considering to enter the laptop business. In a recent interview to Finnish national broadcaster, the company’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said that they are looking “very actively” at this opportunity.
He went on adding, “We don’t have to look even for five years what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging. Today we have hundreds of millions of people who are having their first Internet experience on the phone. This is a good indication.”
The problem, though, is that unlike smartphones, laptops are a low-margin business. However, with many of the world’s carriers slowly adding netbooks and laptops to their offerings, Nokia may be tempted to cover that segment of the market, too. In addition, as Nokia moves more toward services, they may sell computers with integrated Ovi suite and compensate on the low margins of the business — something other laptop makers can’t do that easily.
The way I see it their best bet is to go for some high-end netbooks, like Sony’s recently unveiled VAIO P series. Moreover, I bet they plan to release a new Internet tablet device this year, which I hope will be more powerful than the current model – N810. More on what I expect from the new tablet can be found in a separate article.
Anyway, I’m eager to hear your thoughts. Should Nokia enter the laptop market? And if so, what kind of products they should release?
[Via: Reuters]
It certainly makes sense especially with Maemo 5 supporting 3G and the like. That said I’d consider a smart tablet, on steroids, or maybe a netbook like computer but not a laptop.
It’s a misquote by Reuters.
When asked if Nokia is looking at the convergence of mobile phones and netbook-type form factors, he replied never say never and all options are open.
It seems like there is a slow progression toward convergence if you look at umpc. I would go for a N810 design with more computer capabilities. Is the E90 moving in that direction anyway?
It remains to be seen how “dumb” notebook (~no software) can be more successful than “smart” (~many years of software devt) phones.
Although…maybe…few years from now…when Apple have created THAT market…