Nokia's General Manager of Mobile Devices, Antti Vasara, had some interesting things to say in an interview with Sweden's E24.SE this morning. Of course, the fact that the E90 ramp-up has begun is notable, especially if you happen to be reading this in Finland where the first shipments of the hotly anticipated communicator will rollout. However, what we found to be most enlightening is Nokia's take on the recent trend towards high-end touchscreen displays -- a la the LG Prada, HTC Touch, and Apple iPhone.Antti claims that people don't like touchscreens and prefer keyboards and joysticks as their input devices. Of course it's true, people don't like using touchscreens for UIs built for a mouse and nothing beats a keyboard with plenty of tactile input for fast data entry. Still, as HTC recently demonstrated with TouchFLO, the combination of using your finger with a UI designed for the finger can be killer -- a lesson presumably not lost on the iPhone as well. Nevertheless, Antti does concede that Nokia is ready for touchscreens if they see the demand. In fact, Nokia "will be launching an entirely new type of mobile next year." Do tell Antti, do tell.
[Via Unwired View]