With Apple’s iPad taking the world by storm, and with more operators signing on board to offer it to consumers, the tablet market has officially taken off. You know what that means, right? Competition. Samsung, with their Galaxy Tab, has tried to enter the spotlight, but reviews are mixed, especially since Google themselves are saying that Android is not optimized for tablet form factor devices at all. That will probably change with the next major version of Android, Gingerbread, due to hit the market any time now. There’s also Chrome OS, but let’s not worry ourselves about that right now.
So what’s Nokia’s response? They are, after all, the largest mobile handset manufacturer, and they’ve historically tried to enter markets that didn’t quite suite them, just to see how consumers would react to buying yet another gadget, but with that famous brand name stamped on top. Anyone remember their poor attempt at cracking the netbook market with that overpriced, underpowered, beautiful, yet unloved computer called the Booklet? They don’t really like talking about that mistake, and a sequel is out of the question, which is why they’re going to try getting into tablets with a model known as the Z500. The name was accidentally published in Nokia’s very own Ovi Store and infamous Russian journalist Eldar Murtazin has confirmed that the product does indeed exist, but the Finnish firm is second guessing themselves as to whether or not they should bring it to the market.
Here’s my simple advice: stop trying to enter new markets when your market share in the business that puts food on the table is dropping like a rock. A tablet is a niche device for people with too much disposable income and a mild case of internet addiction. Feel free to research the space, build concepts, but the more people you can put to work on fixing MeeGo for mobile phones, the better.
[Via: Mobile Geek Inc.]