Nokia Hints At Windows 8 Tablets 82
MrSeb writes "When the Microsoft-Nokia strategic alliance was first announced in February, there was absolutely no mention of money: Nokia, seemingly on its own accord, had decided that Windows Phone 7 was the future of its smartphone efforts. A week later it emerged that Microsoft and Google had been competing for Nokia's affections — a bidding war that concluded with Microsoft agreeing to pay Nokia billions of dollars to help market and develop Windows phones. Fast forward to today and Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, is making rather odd comments about the tablet market: 'There’s a new tablet opportunity coming. We see the opportunity,' Elop said to Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday. Furthermore, he had only positive things to say about Windows 8 — that it's a "supercharged" version of WP7, but for tablets. Does that sound like Nokia is planning to bring out a Windows 8-powered tablet? Is it possible that Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar agreement with Nokia also included Windows 8?"
Re:So is this just more MS Vapor? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not vapor, Nokia will produce Windows 7 phones and I believe they will also do Windows 8 tablets. Let's face it, if your company were sinking, you'd clutch at anything, even if it didn't float.
M$ seems to genuinely believe that they will have some significant presence in the smartphone and tablet markets. Having a strong tie (or ownership depending on what rumors you believe) of a hardware company that makes those gadgets is a reasonable step for them to take. I can even imagine that M$ was having trouble shopping Windows Phone 7 to many of the other manufacturers, so basically has to buy the business to achieve market penetration.
Will any of this work? I don't think so. I don't believe M$ will ever achieve a significant portion of either markets. The advantage is, they still has their core business to keep them going when it's time to throw Nokia overboard.
Re:This comment is all FUD. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nokia was purchased in all but name. They took some cash from MS in exchange for every technology they have.
Wake up.