If you were looking for proof that the line between smartphones and laptops is rapidly starting to blur, look no further -- Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo told Reuters today that the Finnish company is "looking very actively" at making a laptop, since "what we we know as a cellphone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging." Sounds about right to us -- but even more interestingly, we're also getting word from the generally-reliable
Mobile-Review that Espoo's working on a MID powered by the new multicore ARM Cortex A9 Sparrow chip. If M-R is to be believed, the new device will only somewhat resemble the current N-series Internet Tablets, instead featuring a slide-out keyboard with diamond-shaped keys and a new widget-based interface. That's a mockup from
Unwired View above, and we think it looks pretty nice -- although we're hoping Nokia's moved well beyond this hybrid N97 / Internet Tablet design language by the time this thing launches in 2011. This sort of convergence is definitely the next big trend, so we've got to ask: smartphone, MID, netbook or laptop -- what's in your (potentially giant) pocket?
[Via
Electronic Pulp]
Read - Unwired View on ARM-powered MID
Read - Reuters on Nokia laptops
posted Feb 25th 2009 7:56PM
please no maemo, it sucks
I'd buy a Nokia laptop, so long as it was open-source operating system.
I'd buy a Nokia laptop, so long as it has Windows 7.
I wouldnt own a Nokia anything unless it was given to me.
I'm gonna have to go with the open-source operating system.
Screw Open Source.
Give it enough juice to run Windows 7 and that will be the ultimate handheld device.
Imagine being able to run your almost infinite array of Windows apps on a handheld.
Did you miss where they said it would be an ARM, which AFAIK Microsoft has not ported NT to, and even if they did, none of the apps would be ported?
Give it an x86 to run NT 7, or any other version, and you'll either be hauling around a normal laptop-sized battery or running out of power. The MIDs so far suffer from this penalty -- they all have at least one, usual two, of these problems: bad performance, short battery life, or too big/heavy.
Look at ARM machines -- that'd be most, if not all, feature/smartphones and PDAs, Nokia's internet tablets, and the like. They use tiny single-cell Li-ion batteries and mostly run all day, without going into standby or suspend modes. Almost no x86 laptops, netbooks, or mids can do that, and the ones that do have batteries that are disproportionately big. (Obviously battery capacity should scale with screen area, assuming the same brightness, but that's not enough to account for the netbooks' batteries.)
So unless you really expect Intel to swing another improvement in power usage on the order of Atom, without a similar performance hit, ARM is the key here. That means existing desktop apps are out, until some ARM platform is big enough that their owners will port them to it. And if Microsoft _won't_ port their flagship OS to it, your options are mainly Windows Mobile/CE, Linux, Symbian, and maker-specific OSes.
Given those options, I'm rooting for Linux, and specifically Maemo. If you don't like open-source apps (which other people can port (and mostly _have_ ported) to ARM for you), then Windows Mobile is probably your best bet, for existing support, but you can bet Nokia's not riding that train.
Jeez, look at that thing. It's a netbook. Phone. They're gonna need a new word.
A PhoneBook or a NetPhone?
That's all i could come up with.
Digital Entertainment Capability Enhanced Portable Type Internet Computer Of Nokia.
Or make it shorter, "DECEPTICON".
@code565472: Nice. You get 50 points. DECEPTICON is way better than PhoneBook or NetPhone.
IMO, the biggest issue involved in this "handheld personal computer" space is the cost of networking. This is kind of an obvious point, but people already pay for network access at home, for a cell phone, and sometimes for business. Nokia's original vision for the Internet Tablet was an accessory to the cell phone, which could share the network connection over Bluetooth. But Bluetooth is too slow by today's standards.
Wireless (cellular) networking is going to have to get cheaper before these products really take off the way they could. Otherwise, it won't matter if they run Windows or Linux or have widgets or crap-lets for an interface.
how cheap is cheap? i suppose it depends on what country you live in. In Scotland 'unlimited' mobile broadband, unlimited texts and 600 any network minutes is £20.
£20 per month
Jeez, that's cheap. Adding unlimited data to _one_ phone on my plan would set me back another $20 per month. That's per month. On top of my expensive family plan...
A PhoneBook or a NetPhone?
Thats all i could come up with
I second the call for PhoneBooks. I've been waiting for a oversized (netbook/newton sized) computer with full operating system (video and mathcad, no problem) that i can hook up to a bluetooth headset and use as a phone on 3G or 4G networks...thankfully i have only another 3 years to wait...
MID with Android, on top of an Archos-like finger friendly entertainment OS with Capacitive touch, AMOLED screen, Wi-Fi, Blutetooth (A2DP as-well) SSD options, and turn by turn GPS. MID's should really replace the so-called netbook and I think Archos and Nokia should be the first one's outta the gate with these types oh hybrid devices. I would definitely buy one of these to carry around instead of a netbook like the Sony VAIO P-series. This would also be extremely useful for in-car entertainment and could potentially replace any in-dash pioneer-type dashboard head units. Make my day Nokia. Do it.
LAKERS in '09
Everything made by Nokia makes looks unattractive.
I'm not prejudiced and actually part Norwegian myself.
Those weird rounded ovals and diamond keys... what were the designers thinking?
Compare these crude designs to HTC and there is no reason to go Nokia (IMO).
You mean, "what was the mockup artist on some blog on the internet thinking?" That's not a Nokia mockup. . . .
The picture's not from Nokia; some online news outlet photochopped an old N800, an N97, and... fishnet stockings (I guess?) to make that picture based on a textual description by someone who has apparently seen prototypes. He did indicate it had diamond-shaped keys, but I can't help but thinking they must have been in a staggered arrangement or something, not just wasting half the keyboard space "because we can". (I also can't help thinking that the styling details may be complete disinformation...)
That said, even if it's ugly... how is comparing the design alone adequate to dismiss it? This is a netbook-thing, not a fashion accessory, and if the functionality is superior overall, I'll buy it no matter how ugly it is. The design doesn't have any practical shortcomings big enough they couldn't be overcome by (currently unknown) software and internal advantages.
@bob e
I don't get it. What does you being part Norwegian have to do with anything?
A better MID is what I am looking for. That's my next "fun" device.
Pocketable for someone with big pockets, probably a 5" screen (like the HTC Advantage)
detachable keyboard (like Advantage)
AMOLED screen
Full wireless connectivity
and.... (now I'll take the hit for this)
Windows Mobile OS, because of the huge application base.
So, in fact, the HTC Advantage is my ideal device. It just didn't have the power to do what needed to be done, especially with regard to video playback, and at the time the Internet experience was miserable, although with Opera 9.5 mobile it's much better now.
I have an N800, an iPaq HX700, and an Archos 5 so I can compare.
The N800 felt best in the hand but was ridiculously underpowered. The OS was very limited, and thought it was "open source", most of what was available for it was crap.
The Archos had the best internet experience, and the HX4700 had the best video playback (thanks to Coreplayer) and best overall software choice. But, I would never buy another Archos product because their system is totally closed and you are entirely at the mercy of Archos for software. That's not working out well.
The HX4700 I have had for 4 1/2 years, and is still my preferred day to day device. That says something.
Although it sounds good, this is a long way off. T.I.'s Cortex-A9 based OMAP4 won't even be in commercial production until the second half of 2010.
Haven't there been a bunch of rumors about updated Nokia Tablets using the (still very impressive) Cortex-A8 OMAP3 platform?? Whats going on with those/ when are they due to be released?
As of last year, the RX-51 was planned for release sometime 1H2009. Yep, any day now (through June).
The SDK has been through a couple pre-alpha releases, and the alpha SDK is due soon. Speculation abounds as to when Nokia will actually announce the new device, but obviously it won't actually ship, even to developers, until _at least_ a beta release of the OS, and we already know a lot about the hardware from the SDK releases. (See http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25478 for what's known.)
PANDORA! openpandora.org
Yeah, maybe if that thing ever gets released. No offense to the guy running that show, but talk about delays. I put my money down for the preorder, but when their credit card fiasco hit, and they returned everyone's payments, I didn't stick around for Round 2. Glad I didn't, seeing how a quarter of a year later it's STILL a ways from even having an actual finished product.
Disappointed to say the least. I had hopes for it.
Back to the roots.
Nokia used to make PCs in the 80s, but sold it to Siemens when consentrating in mobile phones. Siemens closed the finnish factories a few years later. Not because they were inefficient, completely opposite as they were producing computers cheaper than german factories, but because workforce for cheaper to sack in Finland than Germany.
But I digress. With about 40% market share and maturing phone markets Nokia needs some other productline to keep groving. Portable computers are one logical possibility.
NOKIA, i really do love you, but a laptop/netbook just isnt gonna make it with you.
Don't say Nokia.... looking at how bulky your phones are, I'd say that Laptops are a *natural* move!
Yea I would definitely consider phones like the new E55 and E71 bulky
...not, even the E63 is a good size
a) that pic isn't their laptop concept
b) it's supposedly a mockup made by a website reporting on a nokia MID interview, so it's not even nokia's MID
c) your title says "ARM-powered MID?" ... nokia already has 3 ... the 770, N800, and N810.
c) as for a nokia laptop... I'd be happy to buy a Nokia Maemo based convertible tablet netbook... 7" or 9" screen, PCI-Express Mini card slot read for 3G card, 1 or 2 full size SDHC card slots, 1.8" or 2.5" drive bay for HDD or SSD, gobs of battery and memory. Yup, I'd be ALL over that.
Nokia rules..apple watch out...
Not surprised at all. I was thinking some time ago that if mobiles and PCs don't properly converge at the services level, then mobile phones will only remain to exist as phone-calling devices and the whole mobile computing would go somewhere else. In today's web 2.0, there is virtually no need for software updates. Right Palm Pre?
Maybe they'll relaunch their earlier computerbrand MikroMikko and
use Symbian as OS -> epic fail.
Miniature laptop with 5-6" wide screen display (WVGA or 720p) and phone capabilities would be a hit.
Doesnt surprise me at all, Nokia bought trolltech last year and they are not just famous for the QT library (KDE uses it) but for their mobile device interfaces (yes Apple we know you ripped them off)..
That Unwired View article is very interesting, not the least of which it mentions some important time frames. It looks like all the major OS companies are working on the new revisions of their OS and none of them will really be feature complete until 2010 or even 2011.
What is is striking in the article is that Android, still at rev 1, will only be largely ready only by rev 3, which is when the other hardware manufacturers will come on board. That means were still looking at HTC to lead the way with the lesser known Chinese companies bringing up the reaer, at least for the next couple of years.
I have an N800 internet tablet, and while I like maemo and how it is very suited to the screen size and resolution, I wish the hardware had built in WWAN. The trouble is that as phones become MIDs and MIDs become phones this would put Nokia in the unenviable posiiton of supporting 2 different OSes on largely similar devices. Eldar's description of the multi-sliding device makes me think more of the N95 than the N97 above/ N810 remix above.
I personally imagine myself with an MID with open OS's on it. Current plans are for the UMID M1 with a dual boot of Android and Ubuntu MID.