Nokia's design wiz confirms he's busy creating a tablet
Here’s some more fuel for the Nokia tablet fire: According to Nokia’s executive vice president of design, a “third of his time” is being spent on making such as device.
Speaking to a Finnish magazine, Marko Ahtisaari, who has led Nokia’s design team since 2009 and overseen the creation of the N9 and the Lumia Windows Phones, didn’t comment any further, except to say “we’re working on it.”
Besides confirming the existence of a Nokia tablet, it’s interesting to note just how much time is being spent on the project, suggesting that a launch at Nokia World in September is at least possible.
The news was picked up by Reuters, where a non-committal quote attributed to an unnamed Nokia spokesman was also published. The quote reads: “We continue to eye the tablet space with interest, but have made no specific announcements.”
Ahtisaari’s admission comes soon after the appearance of a rumor suggesting that Nokia is preparing a 10-inch, ARM-based Windows 8 tablet for launch before the end of the year. Prior to this, Nokia has never been shy about its interest in the tablet market, but has always indicated it doesn’t want to release a “me too” device, and would prefer to do something more unique.
Future features
While the Finnish magazine’s interview has only appeared in print at this point, a snippet has been reproduced on its website, with Ahtisaari saying he’s also working on a user interface that will “revolutionize” how we use our phones, as we won’t need to touch the screen or even look at the device to operate it.
When interviewed by The Guardian at the beginning of the year, he mentioned at the time that the next generation of devices were being worked on, and that if they could “take [the design] to the extreme” by removing moving parts — a reference to the Lumia 800′s micro-USB cover — and other connectors, then they would.
Could this mean we’ll see deeper integration of NFC and even inductive, wireless charging on either Nokia’s tablet or future smartphones? His words could certainly be interpreted that way.
How about this: A Windows 8 tablet powered by a dual-core Qualcomm chip, with a “revolutionary” user interface, wireless charging and a range of accessories and features which use NFC, all wrapped up in a design from the mind of the man who brought us the Lumia 800 and Lumia 900? It sounds pretty good to us, and if the current rate of new information leaking out continues, it may not be that long until we find out more.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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