Nicely specced but the lack of innovation or flair, something that Nokia of old sometimes had too much of, is very disappointing. The resemblance to the iPad mini is startling though; perhaps it's the Finns way of getting back at Apple for nicking the Lumia design with the iPhone 5C?
NOKIA - Not FINNished yet! BEHOLD the somewhat DULL MYSTERY DEVICE!
Nokia is back in consumer electronics with an iPad rival, the new N1 tablet, just six months after Microsoft snorked up its phone division. The Finnish firm has said that many more devices will follow. Youtube Video The Atom-powered, Android-based, mini-sized N1 enters a crowded marketplace with a price tag of just $250. It's …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:07 GMT Stuart 22
A sensible strategy
The Nokia brand still has great value in the consumer market. Especially without the collateral that will dog blackberry to death.
I see this machine purely as a marker. To keep the consumer brand alive as Microsoft erase it from their products. It helps re-establish product marketing, sales and distribution divisions. In other words a foundation to build a business. Not the business itself.
It also puts them in the Android/Chinese manufacture model. Is anyone seriously suggesting they get back into manufacture of hardware & OS again? They have learnt that lesson. No, they will try and concentrate what they do best. Refining Android and the hardware to become the Waitrose to Tesco's Hudl.
There is space and done well could make Samsung look like an outdated out of town hypermarket when people want a next generation device to be more intimate, more trustworthy. Its something worth going for. If they can keep themselves focussed (unlike the old Nokia), some useful innovation and lots of luck.
Here's lookin' at you kid.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 21:20 GMT Bad Beaver
Yup.
I was also slightly taken aback by the sheer lack of … well the NOKIA factor. Bells. Whistles. A freakishly overpowered camera. Über-quality audio-recording. Inductive charging. Anything. Yes, the true fanboy inside my chest lusts for more, lusts for high end techno magic with a killer design, made 100% by freaky Finns in Finland, along with a bonkers ad campaign concocted by Britains finest creative minds.
On the other hand, this is a well specced effort at a rather low price and most likely just a first step. So I consider this a good sign.
I also saw a lot, and by that I mean a great many, very happy comments on the web today by people who just got "their" brand back. And that made me smile.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 13:45 GMT Spanners
Re: Really?!
No. What caused their downfall was being forced to do what Microsoft wanted.
There seem to be two types of devices wanted nowadays - whether phone or tablet...
1. Hugely overpriced, locked down, toys with a dated interface to show that you have "arrived"
2. Android devices - more powerful ones at a higher price or cheaper/less clever ones.
Nokias problem was that they were being forced in between as...
Much cheaper than iThings but not as good as Android and not as shiny as Apples offerings but not desirable enough for the rest of us.
This device may show that they are back on track towards the mass market. Good luck to them!
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 00:18 GMT SpiderPig
Re: Really?!
Well that is a load of crap.
The downfall was created by a management structure that was too self absorbed to really notice what was happening out in the real world. They also refused to listen to all of us at the coalface on what we should be doing about it.
Nothing to do with "me too" products. The N9 was certainly NOT a "me too" product and had the potential of nailing Apple to the wall and putting a serious dint in the advance of Android.
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 13:47 GMT danbi
Re: Really?!
"The N9 was certainly NOT a "me too" product and had the potential of nailing ..."
Then, the knight on white horse (aka Microsoft) came along and made sure none of this happened.
If the N9 was so superior, why was it not a huge success? I myself, being a long time Nokia fan wanted one -- but the moment they announce Nokia laid in bed with Microsoft, my desire vaporized!
The primary failure of Nokia was software development. Also, hardware quality issues. The design by itself was great and they had absolutely uncontested inside knowledge of the GSM technology.
But beat Apple and the rest of the pack? No way -- while Nokia was offering smart GSM phones, the others were doing pocketable computers that also doubled as a phone. It turns out, consumers were after the computers....
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Friday 21st November 2014 20:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
Me too?!!!
Bollocks!
Nokia was streets ahead of Apple with the likes of their N97, E7 and many other devices, but the herd didn't want to follow such innovation because they were led elsewhere.
Just wait until 3-5 years time when Apple "innovate" with an iPhone with a keyboard and wow, even a SLIDE-OUT keyboard!!! Such incredible innovation, all thanks to the spirit of St. Steve The Innovator.
Yawn. Meanwhile back in the real world the Finns just shrug their shoulders and crack on regardless with new ideas and making an honest living rather than the over-hyped US sh1t ........
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 12:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Looks smart
Interesting design I quite like the look of it. Not sure about the Atom + Android combo though. Doesn't that rule out being able to use Netflix as it is ARM only on Android?
So essentially they are going to become an Android tablet and phone maker at the earliest opportunity. Meanwhile Microsoft take an expensive bath with that Lumia range of phones that they've bought off Nokia... Can't help but feel it is money down the drain for Microsoft. People will start to gravitate back to Nokia especially if they bring back a few classic designs with Android powering them
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 12:44 GMT Phil W
Could this be a rather shrewd long term plan?
Get rid of Elop and any other staff they didn't really want, and get paid a huge sum for it.
Then a few years later start making nice Android devices with typical Nokia design and styling.
If they still have the talent pool available that created things like the N900 and never released N950, then they could produce some very interesting Android phones.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 12:44 GMT Salts
It is after all a Nokia
I am no brand loyalist but could see it doing well, what would you rather have a Tesco tablet or a Nokia? One produced for a supermarket or one designed by Nokia and if they went with sailfish as an OS I would buy one just to try it. However Android is a safe bet for them, Nokia name with Android you could do a lot worse.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:57 GMT Peter Gathercole
Re: "Nokia said China would receive it first" @disembodied John Brown
That was never the joke. The North East used to have many coal mines, and used to export the coal to other parts of the country and abroad out of Newcastle. So the ironic joke was that there was no point in shipping coal to Newcastle because they had enough of their own.
Now the North East has no coal mines, and also does not export much of anything at all out of Newcastle.
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 00:19 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: "Nokia said China would receive it first" @disembodied John Brown
"brown ale. lovely, lovely brown ale."
Brewing moved to Gateshead quite some years ago and has since moved to, IIRC, Tadcaster in Yorkshire. They dropped the claim for regional protected status on the name on moving brewing out of Newcastle.
That's almost like the Nokia --> MS Lumia, to get back on topic
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 00:19 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: "Nokia said China would receive it first" @disembodied John Brown
"The North East used to have many coal mines,"
Having been born, bred, raised and still live in the NE a few miles from what is now only "the site of" Westoe Pit, what was one of the UKs "superpits", I can only say "whoooosh!"
(For clarification, after most of the pits shut down, coal, mainly from Australia (Newcastle, I think), was shipped into the Tyne, hence the reversal of the "joke".
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Nokia laughing at Microsoft..
Why would they WANT to "influence the OS"? Google are doing a fine job of that. What Nokia are doing, is delivering services ontop of that, making people want to buy their products instead of competing products, from companies like you know, Sony, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, all also have no intention of "influencing the OS".
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 13:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Nokia laughing at Microsoft..
basically. They no longer have Elop and his trojan policies, no need to waste time and resources making products that nobody wants (Windows Phone, Windows RT), they can make things that people DO want.
Well priced, well spec'd Android tablets.
They don't make anything. They are merely a Foxcon rebrander now
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 21:20 GMT Anna Logg
Re: Nokia laughing at Microsoft..
Is there any actual evidence that this is a Foxconn design rebadged for Nokia? Sure, it's manufactured by Foxconn, but then they've been making stuff for Nokia for a decade or more, that's a whole different kettle of fish do doing the original design work.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 12:45 GMT Test Man
Not a problem licensing the name out, it's exactly what Google does with their Nexus tablets.
The bigger concern is why there doesn't seem to be a Google Play store. Didn't Nokia want to (abide by and) sign the contract with Google giving them access to the Play Store in return for sticking to certain specifications, etc.?
There is the possibility that as they are just "dipping their toes" so they didn't want to commit fully yet. After all, Android makes it a lot easier to create a product from scratch without having to commit to certain companies by signing contracts (as anyone is free to grab the open source AOSP files), and is probably part of the reason why they didn't go for Windows (even if it's "free" for OEMs, you still have to sign a contract and stick to certain restrictions, etc.).
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 13:45 GMT dogged
> Didn't Nokia want to (abide by and) sign the contract with Google giving them access to the Play Store in return for sticking to certain specifications, etc.?
That's the main reason why they never went Android in the first place.
Nokia have an enormous investment in services. What used to be Ovi is now Here (or just Nokia) and supplies a whole lot of really good maps and other shit which Google would relegate to "thing in App Drawer that you never use because of all the Google services". That would have been basically pissing away everything they spent on making those services (which are still Nokia, not Microsoft) excellent.
Google Play was always the problem. Not Elop, not burning platforms, just Google.
Not that anyone here wants to admit it.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 14:42 GMT chris 17
@ dogged,
Really? Google where the problem? Google produced the OS!! Nokia had their own OS's that Elop stopped developing & stopped product launches, burn't his platforms and jumped onto the M$ rescue ships that sunk. Thankfully the Nokia Platforms look like they can be rehabited and start producing again.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:14 GMT dogged
@chris 7
Yes really. Nokia could have gone with Google but in doing so they would have scrapped billions of dollars worth of services and time spent on those services.
Instead, they went with Microsoft and got $2billion cash per year and somebody to buy off their sinking handset division.
Pre-Elop, you could accuse the Nokia board of many types of foolishness. Post and during, all they've done is score win after win in terms of shareholder value. I understand that you're personally betrayed because "M$" and tiles and not doing things you like so therefore everyone involved is simultaneously an evil genius and an absolute cretin but Nokia walked away with very full pockets and overperforming business areas.
As far as the board are concerned (and I want you to brace yourself because this may be a bit of a shock) it is not and never was about what you want.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 19:38 GMT DrXym
"Yes really. Nokia could have gone with Google but in doing so they would have scrapped billions of dollars worth of services and time spent on those services."
They wouldn't have had to scrap anything. I just said what they *could* have done. They would have had enormous latitude to customize the software experience and bundled their own apps and services.
"Instead, they went with Microsoft and got $2billion cash per year and somebody to buy off their sinking handset division."
And that's the only reason. An enormous hat full of money, or rather whatever passes for money coming from Microsoft - licences, software support, broken dreams etc.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 14:42 GMT phil dude
maps and..
Well my defunct devices N8 and N9 , still have functioning maps, probably due to their being a seperate limb.
If this device might get Sailfish on it, I would say it looks nice.
I really like the idea of Android being a normal user process on my system.
I don't like being a normal user in the Android system.
P.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:12 GMT DrXym
"That's the main reason why they never went Android in the first place."
That would be a pretty preposterous reason. Lots of devices ship with two stores. Some even ship with their own proprietary store.
"Nokia have an enormous investment in services. What used to be Ovi is now Here (or just Nokia) and supplies a whole lot of really good maps and other shit which Google would relegate to "thing in App Drawer that you never use because of all the Google services". That would have been basically pissing away everything they spent on making those services (which are still Nokia, not Microsoft) excellent."
I don't see it stopping them from shipping their own suite of apps any more than Samsung ships its own suite of apps. I'm certain that customers would see the value add of having an offline satnav as a compelling reason to use a Nokia device.
"Google Play was always the problem. Not Elop, not burning platforms, just Google."
I find that extremely unlikely. If they *had* gone with Android then they could have skinned it any way they liked, e.g. giving it a look and feel consistent with their Symbian devices. They could have also shipped their own value add apps and store application. And they could have even produced a Symbian or QT framework over their OS to foster development on their platform. So they could have had a device which carried over all those Symbian devs and users instead of just telling them to get lost.
Instead they went to Microsoft where it was Microsoft's way or the high way. Yeah they shipped a handful of apps in the end but it was a weak effort as to what they could have done.
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 14:03 GMT danbi
Re: Instead they went to Microsoft
One reason why Nokia was reluctant to jump to Android was the ongoing lawsuits between Microsoft and Android makers. They were probably thinking Microsoft is a safer bet.
Of course, Nokia should have stayed with Symbian, or any of the Linux based platforms they already had.
But then, it so happened that Microsoft was shopping for mobile device maker...
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 13:44 GMT A Non e-mouse
Interesting
It's interesting Nokia coming back into the devices market so quickly (Especially at the low end where margins are wafer thin). Did the Nokia big-wigs realise that their handset division was out of control and flogging it off and starting again with a clean slate was their plan all along?
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:12 GMT Lars
Re: Interesting
I think they want to keep the brand alive. Nokia Networks is the main business to day but the brand in that world is not as visible. Perhaps one could as well call the N1 a Foxconn device branded Nokia and that is not to say Nokia has nobody left with experience with such devices.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 13:44 GMT boboM
Welcome back
Well, welcome back Nokia,
This time you made the right OS choice, pity about the lost time.
Rather clever of you to sell the non-selling phones to MS and keep the Nokia name to yourself (well, soon anyway).
Might even consider buying a phone or tablet off you now that it is not polluted with Windows.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 14:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Welcome back
Can someone clarify if this is actually Nokia designed or if it is just a Chinese designed and manufactured tablet that they've paid to have their brand stamped on them and version of Android loaded to flog under the Nokia name? I was under the impression it was an existing tablet that they'd just rebranded?!
In which case if this is their business model then good luck to them, but I'd have reservations about the build quality and eye for design that once made them the cream of the crop.
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 14:42 GMT chris 17
And they're back!!!!
i want to buy one just because :)
A shame they couldn't have got rid of M$ sooner. That Elop has a lot to answer for.
For those too young to remember, Nokia married style with function. Many innovations we now take for granted where spawned in the Nokia Labs, Polyphonic/stereo ringtones, Cameras on your phone etc.
Apple arrived on the scene as Nokia was stalling and carried that style and function methodology forward where Mokia where confused and blinded by the Apple light.
Can't wait to see what they come up with next!!
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 17:13 GMT Charlie Clark
Intel's marketing money
But it also refers to the possibility that Nokia would license out the brand to other manufacturers
Looks like they're already doing it. This has generous Intel support written all over it. Must be some kind of bonus for the 1st 10,000 Intel mobile chips
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Tuesday 18th November 2014 19:38 GMT John Savard
I don't understand why they're bothering to make an Android tablet using the Atom processor. ARM is the standard for Android that runs all Android apps.
People use x86 because they want access to the huge mass of Microsoft Windows applications, although it's also used for Linux because the Windows market has subsidized the price/performance of x86 chips and x86 lets you use more Linux binaries - people run Linux on the PCs they can most easily find and purchase.
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Wednesday 19th November 2014 00:20 GMT x 7
totally pointless me-too product with which they'll have to try an ever-failing game of marketing catch-up.
this is their last throw of the dice to find a market - and its going to fail. They're throwing their money away. Far better they had found a new niche, rather than try to compete in an already oversaturated market, Again....