Nokia chief Stephen Elop hinted in an interview with YLE late Wednesday that the company would be more cautious about entering tablets than others. He believed the company could go either with Windows or an in-house platform like MeeGo, but the team had to choose what was right and distinctive. The iPad was continuing to succeed partly because it was facing a glut of similar designs that couldn't distinguish themselves, and Nokia's plans would involve something unique.
"There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well," Elop said in a reference to the iPad. "And my challenge to the team is, I don't wanna be the 201st tablet on the market that you can't tell [apart] from all of the others. We have to take a uniquely Nokia prospective."
What that would entail is still uncertain. The company filed for two tablet design patents that suggest a look superficially like that of the N8 smartphone and could theoretically use Symbian. An alliance with Microsoft and a desire to stand out through MeeGo, though, could leave it waiting for a tablet-ready interface from either OS. Windows won't have that until Windows 8 in late 2012, but a tablet-native MeeGo has already been seen in development.
Nokia been usually been one of the slower companies to adapt to modern mobile trends and has paid for it through its drop to 29 percent phone share. As a virtual non-competitor in tablets, however, it has the luxury to enter the market when and how it wants. Google and RIM have both rushed to get out competitive alternatives to the iPad interface but have so far been criticized for bugs, a lack of polish and missing third-party or even first-party apps.