Imagining the Nokia tablet

Mobile World Congress 2013 has come and gone, and we didn't see a Nokia tablet. I set upon imagining the Nokia tablet and what it would in reality be, and I got the feeling that seeing a tablet from Nokia is still a long way away. In this post I evaluate some of the difficulties Nokia faces in releasing a tablet and speculate features, forms and technological wow-factors it could come to encompass. At the same time, I ponder how Microsoft's Surface effort, as well as mismanaging Windows RT and Windows 8 might've messed with Nokia's tablet plans.

My impressions of the current situation on the market
Having a tablet to compete in the ever converging mobile space seems to be a must in the Western world. Not every consumer has a tablet, but just about everyone is starting to have a smart phone. At the same time people are moving away from traditional (desktop) PCs and ultra portables are becoming more popular. I understand this is the emerging market often titled as the "post PC market" that manufacturers are racing to capture.

At the moment the tablet market is dominated by two players: Apple with their iPads and Samsung with their army of Android powered Galaxy Tab devices. A lot of other manufacturers offer tablets, but only these two manufacturers have managed to sell tablets in the (tens of) millions. Apple's and Samsung's success can be explained by, well, having a tablet in the first place to sell, but also being first ones to offer a truly consumer-friendly tablet experience. Apple's "one-size-fits-all" approach with just one model a year is met by Samsung's "one-of-these-sizes-must-fit-someone" approach, which in practice means a plethora of Galaxy Tab branded tablets in all thicknesses and screen sizes and in just about all price points.

What then can be Nokia's angle with which to conquer the tablet market?

Operating systems
The operating system aboard Nokia's tablet will most certainly be one designed by Microsoft. As much as I'd love to fantasise MeeGo-Harmattan based tablets, in all honesty I think Microsoft's platform is the only viable platform (that is in existence and ready) that can handle tablet-device duties and is available to Nokia.

Rumours also have it that Nokia will be launching a Windows RT powered tablet. Some hoped it would happen at MWC13. Then we learned that Nokia had only done some prototypes that mostly tried out different form-factors for tablets, and that nothing had survived the process to become a final consumer product. Yet. I feel that if there's some debate over Nokia tablet's operating system, it revolves more around the question will it be Windows RT, or full on Windows 8.

Windows RT is a "simplified" Windows 8, with support only for apps that make use of the 'Modern UI'. Basically  it looks like the Windows 8 app launcher that you can see when you press the Windows button in Win8. Biggest caveats in WinRT by public opinion seem to be: no desktop, heavy reliance on developers making 'Modern UI' versions of apps, and apps can only be downloaded from the Microsoft store. Right now the Microsoft store is pretty empty. I think Windows RT's real problems don't rely in the mentioned limitations, but that Microsoft's marketing hasn't been able to differentiate it significantly enough from Windows 8. People seem to regard it as a version of Windows 8, that's found on tablets. That's why they are dissapointed, when you don't have the full-power of the Windows desktop product, in a product that uses the Windows branding. Proof of the existence of this "Windows illusion" is in the fact that nobody for a second stops to criticize that Google based tablets only allow downloading from the Google Play store and iPads can only download apps from the AppStore. To me this is proof that people quite haven't wrapped their head around what Windows RT really is. A lot of this misconception is Microsoft's own fault though as they made some empty promises and gave out some misleading information relating to the operating system's capabilities.

Microsoft has failed in marketing it as a "streamlined tablet OS utilising functions from the Windows products" and instead its viewed as a "Windows 8, compromise edition. Half the features and half the functions you expect. And no legacy apps!". These misconceptions have made Windows RT an operating system with a frankly negative reputation, making the job for Nokia ever harder. Samsung is cancelling Windows RT tablet-PC hybrids in the US and countries of the EU because of low demand. It's becoming ever harder to see how Nokia's WinRT effort could turn this around.

I see some technical reasons why Nokia would be interested in using Microsoft's Windows RT on their tablet instead of the full-fledged Windows 8, though. Unlike Samsung and Apple, Nokia has little to no experience in the PC market. Nokia's Booklet 3G was a lick away from a disaster, so I bet Nokia is much more careful to not get burned again in a market unfamiliar to them. Should Nokia chose Windows RT, it would place Nokia's products closer to the expertise Nokia already has. Windows RT devices run on hardware very similar to those on smart phones and so Nokia could utilise existing partnerships. After-sales support is a lot more manageable when you can utilise your current support (or Nokia Care) chain you already have in place. In the times of the Booklet 3G, smart phones and computers were worlds apart in design and manufacturing costs. Marketing a tablet these days is similar to marketing a smart phone, especially if you can make the connection between the operating systems running on both devices. Booklet 3G's Windows XP was worlds apart from Symbian, and there was no real coherence between Nokia's smartphone products and the Booklet. Running full-fledged Windows 8 would again create a gap between Nokia's handset products and its tablet products. Naturally, also hardware requirements would be very different.

Physical form factor and hardware
Right now Nokia is having a great run in their physical designs of their products. Design award after design award has been won ever since the N9/Lumia 800 form factor and now Nokia's influence on design can (in my opinion) be seen also in other manufacturers' products. Suddenly we're getting devices and accessories with vibrant and brave colours, and not just those black, steel-gray or white devices. I trust no other company as much as I do Nokia in coming up with a truly unique tablet design. Just how they will do this is still unlcear for me, but I think the Nokia tablet that will end up being released won't be a ~10inch slab of glass and plastic.

Nokia could simply make a tablet that looks like a Lumia phone. I just don't think that this would be enough for the current Nokia. Microsoft's Surface tablet addressed this issue of generic tablet design by introducing a kick-stand to the device, colourful removable keyboards/protective shields and a MicroSD slot. If Nokia had been first to design a tablet with these functions, I feel Nokia could've A) brought some extra Nokia-wow to these features and B) marketed it much better. I also believe that Nokia would've looked more into actual user cases for the device, making its physical feel a lot better than the Surface. (By no means is the Surface a failed effort, however in my opinion.) Now that Microsoft has cleared the table with the Surface, I guess a lot of Nokia's ideas might've been sent back to zero. There's something about the form factors of the Surface tablet so Nokian that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it turned out that Nokia designed the Surface. So I find myself thinking, what else is very Nokian right now in Nokia's products?

Nokia's state-of-the-art imaging technology is what wowed us in the Lumia 920 and Lumia 720, and design is what wowed us with the Lumia 620, Lumia 520 and for me personally the Lumia 820. Other Nokia's strengths at this time are their location based services and their wide array of Lumia-exclusive apps. These features don't seem to me as selling-points for a tablet, though. I feel that for the tablet, Nokia must come up with a new technology or some new innovation, or else Nokia's tablet will just seem like a big Lumia phone.

Specialisation
One possibly less adventured development path would be the road of specialisation. By specialisation I mean that Nokia would design their tablet to do fewer things, but to do them well. A music-oriented device would be particularly interesting to me, and it would continue nicely Nokia's concentration with music. Nokia already has a Windows 8 version of their app Nokia Music, which could be the center-piece in their music-oriented tablet. The tablet would naturally have NFC to connect to the array of NFC enabled music accessories from Nokia (and JBL). The speakers on the device it self could also be top-class, but by this I don't mean big. Current ultrabooks such as my Zenbook has tiny speakers designed by Bang & Olufsen, that sound a lot better than traditional laptop speakers. The device would pack a lot of internal memory and be upgradeable with MicroSD cards for people to load with MP3s and video files. Bluetooth 3.0 or a similar technology would ensure that file transfer could happen also without wires. Spotify would be a good launch partner and would erase the bad memory of Spotify's lackluster support for Windows Phone. I believe a Spotify app is in the works for Windows RT. Physical design of this device could have "play/pause, next and previous track" buttons. Physically it could be a smaller 7" tablet, with the adolescent audience and women in mind. (Many probably don't know this, but even the N9 was originally designed to please the female audience. Turns out everyone loved it, so this could be a killer recipe.)

Another specialised tablet could be one designed for corporate use. It would have a webcam of great quality, and a great set of microphones for Skype calling. It would come with a deattachable keyboard of course, and Windows already has support for just about all Bluetooth keyboards out there. At launch Nokia would introduce a few of its own keyboards of course. The tablet would have wireless charging technology to make keeping all of your devices, including the tablet itself, running on full battery. The deattachable keyboard would bring extra battery life to the product and serve as a wireless charger. Microsoft's cloud-based Office solutions would play a key role here and be heavily present in the marketing. This tablet would also be every bloggers dream bit of kit to take to live-blogging events. Nokia would introduce at launch a few new auxiliary power solutions tailored for this device, but usable by other Nokia products as well.

Specialisation like this could be a way around the problem with Windows RT at the moment. Marketing Nokia's device as a strictly specialised product could take away from the illusion that Windows RT should be able to do everything Windows 8 does. It wouldn't even attempt to compete with "full" Windows 8 devices. Specialisation could also be the way to bring added value to people that have tablets now. I feel that Android and iOS based tablets offer only "more of the same" you've come to expect on those platforms in smartphones. Sure some apps make use of the larger screen, but in all honesty you're doing the same things on a tablet you're doing on your phone. This has been reason enough for me to conclude that I don't need a tablet. Specialisation could be a fresh new way out of the stagnated slate-inflated tablet market. It would also give a nice excuse to sell multiple devices of different purpoes to the same customer.

Conclusion
Nokia has some real strengths right now, making them the most viable Windows Phone manufacturer today. The Nokia tablet should have features we already enjoy about Nokia's current product portfolio: it should contain a wide array of Nokia apps we enjoy on the Lumias, it should make use of Nokia's location services and perhaps their imaging technology too. The tablet is a product that requires something new from Nokia however. It would need a new technology or a new innovation, but it should bring something new to the table in terms of how we use tablets. This is by no means a small feat and even with my idea of specialisation I don't think the picture is quite ready for a viable Nokia tablet. It's not only up to Nokia either. Microsoft have to do some extensive face saving with the reputation and perceptions around Windows RT.

Why (not) Windows Phone 8?

Last article on this site was about my reasons for sticking with Windows Phone 7 over everything else out there. In this article I try to explain why, contrary to my enthusiast nature, I'm thinking of not changing from Windows Phone 7 even to Windows Phone 8.

Towards the end of October '12, we finally saw the wraps come off some notable Windows Phone 8 devices. Samsung opened the game with ATIV S, shortly followed by Nokia and HTC. All of these devices offered a lot of specs to drool over, but I can't help to think that for me the operating system it self is the least exciting thing about these new devices.

Let's compare the situation to the Android and even iOS world. Every time there's new devices announced, they also make a very big deal over how the OS has evolved in its latest iteration. Android manufacturers and Apple upgrade their operating system, but offer higher specs in the devices as well. Sure, this isn't a guaranteed way to make money (such as HTC's beautiful and powerful One-lineup proved), but it becomes pretty clear to consumers as to why make the jump.

The most awaited feature in Windows Phone 8 for me is ... drumroll .... the new theme colours. Yeah, not Kid's corner, not that Room thing, not the resizeable live tiles, not the support for new technical feature a-z, but the theme or accent colours. Sure, Microsoft is very lucky that they've enrolled a device manufacturer that has been willing to pour its heart out in innovation into their WP8 device, increasing drooling potential significantly. Still I feel this isn't a merit of the platform itself at all, and I pack the 808 for when I need a mobile camera. Other features I love about WP7 remain unchanged in WP8, so why do the upgrade?

Yeah, so?

So, sales and especially pre-order sales have been great for some Windows Phone 8 devices, so I must be in the minority who think that WP8 isn't anything too great. Right? Well, I think there's more to this here. Let's explore a little farther.

Windows Phone 7.8, the update to all current Windows Phone 7.5 devices. Rumours spread around the web a couple of weeks ago, that on the 28th of November, WP7.8 would be released to the masses. Wednesday rolled around, and all we got was a Microsoft statement that they've pushed it back to Q1 2013. Whenever a date pops into the rumour-o-sphere that is Twitter, we can usually be pretty sure that the software is ready or just about ready to be released.

There can then be only market-strategic reasons for not releasing the software. I think that the reason this time is, that they don't want to risk sales of Windows Phone 8, and will go far and wide to take precautions. If I, for example, would have been given WP7.8 on the 28th, I don't think I would even be writing this blog post. Windows Phone 8 would feel so irrelevant to me. I'd have all I wanted:  my precious theme colours. There was a lot of commotion when WP7.8 was announced, as people were expecting a free update to WP8. Since that day I've felt though, that because WP7.8 and WP8 will look the same, the real differences between the operating systems will soon be forgotten. I think Microsoft is aware of this as well, and this is the reason they're pushing it back.

High demand and interest for WP8 comes from people, who aren't on the platform yet, but refused to do the jump 6-8 months back when it was "killed" WP7 months after it got popular and got its first flagship devices.

Conclusions: my suggestion to Microsoft

Now that you've bought yourself some time with WP7.8, make it mandatory that in the installation phase you will be greeted with a checklist comparing WP7.8 to WP8. I think we satisfied, current customers should be reminded why we're only applying the "WP8 skin" to our system. You could remind us of the strict hardware restrictions that have made "real" new features a near impossibility on older devices. Trash talking your own product like this probably isn't the way to go, but maybe you get my drift.

Sales for Windows Phone 7 devices were rubbish, but there's still a couple of million of us out here, so make the effort of selling Windows Phone 8 to us.

Why have I stuck with Windows Phone?

A lot of people ask me what it is that I like about Windows Phone, or worse, they ask me "if its good". I have a hard time answering, as I know they don't have the patience for me to tell them all my reasons why I like it or why I've stuck with it since early 2012. I feel my blog is a more fitting forum for my explanation, so here it is. Enjoy!

Look and feel

In the very beginning it was the fascination of a new thing, but the fluidity and classiness of the whole user experience and the differentiated look intrigued me from day one. My first WP7 device was the HTC Trophy 7, as I imagine it was for a lot of people too. I wasn't too impressed by the operating system at its version then, but HTC's hardware design downright turned me off. Windows Phone seemed to suffer from a number of problems that I've never encountered since then.  Problems included stupefyingly low battery life, and the chance that the entire device might freeze during a phone call. I suspect these were problems with the hardware, though. Battery life is still a worry with the Lumia 800 that I'm using, but at least I get the standard ~6 hrs I need before absolutely having to charge the device. My Lumia 800 has never completely jammed, none of the core apps have ever crashed on me and there's just been no show-stopping problems ever.

As mentioned, the thing that has really pulled me in is the look, sound and feel of the platform. Somehow I felt right at home with WP7 after the N9. Using a WP7 device is an audal and visual pleasure, although no device has managed to top the haptic feedback you get from typing with the N9. Microsoft's approach was to insert a cute tapping sound to the keyboard which is really nice, but obtainable by anyone really. It takes a company with experience to pay attention to such details, as to what your vibramotor on the circuit board of your device feels like to the user when it goes off. Typing on the N9 almost feels like typing on a semi-physical keyboard. I hope to see this in Nokia's future WP devices.

Apps, or the lack of thereof

As a lover of the N900, I always felt sort of envious over the mapping support on Symbian. Maps on Maemo5 were like an early alpha build of Maps compared to what was on Symbian. This applied to a lot of apps available on the big brother platform. Everything Nokia supported on the N900 felt like it was under development, until it (very quickly) became abandoned. You had lots of enthusiastic coders and hackers, but nothing was ever consumer ready, and you couldn't really rely on any app to work when you really needed it. Switching to a Symbian phone wasn't an option either, because, well, Symbian. Let's not have that discussion here. You can read about my thoughts on S^3 here. The same feeling of apps being incomplete or not intended for serious use crept in every now and then on the N9 as well, although I must applaud companies that had full-heartedly placed their trust in the MeeGo-Harmattan platform and created fully functional, premium feeling apps for it. My biggest problem was always Nokia's own lack of effort towards the core social media apps and the simply lackluster browser. In Windows Phone (Mango) the browser is top class, it even gets around the Flash issue no problem by great media player integration as soon as a HTML5 website is spotted. Some people complain that the social media aspect of the built-in apps is lackluster, and that they end up installing a Twitter and Facebook client anyway. For me, Twitter works just fine and I'm not a big fan of Facebook. Thanks to Windows Phone's integrated Facebook features, though, I've never before been so up to date with my friends new pictures. For me pictures are the most fun part about Facebook! I've also noticed I spend more time looking at people's profiles when I want to re-establish contact with them. Feels suitable to do that when I'm on my phone.

Adopting a new mobile OS paradigm

Like mentioned, people complain that core apps are lacking in WP, but they're also the reason why it felt like a breath of fresh air after clutter-madness Android. Sure in the beginning I missed having all the apps I wanted on the device and sure I missed having alternatives for the Calendar app, for example. Windows Phone first appeared to me as incomplete. However, once I was forced out of this mindset, it felt quite pleasing that I was forced into working with only a few tools. This way calendar entries or settings were never lost when installing another app, and setting up the phone only takes 1 hour after a reflash. I can concentrate on things more important to me than adjusting my default e-mail, browser, and photo application “to be used when performing this action”. I always detested the “there’s an app for that” mentality that came with the iPhone. I want everything built-in, running smooth, always there. My #1 used feature on my Windows Phone device is the in-built instant messaging services. When I use the IM service, I feel like I’m back on my N900 again as SMS and IM are all integrated in the same app. I mean really, why should they be differentiated into separate apps?

Conclusions

So here are my thoughts on Windows Phone 7 as we currently know it. Windows Phone 8 will certainly be a huge improvement, although personally I won’t be too sad to be stuck with WP7.8 on my Lumia 800. There’s really nothing I really need from Windows Phone 8, but of course I will be looking into getting the Lumia 920 or the HTC 8X. Another thing going for Windows Phone is how it seems to be forcing manufacturers to come up with colourful and different designs. This could be just Nokia’s influence on the mobile space, but in the end it means that we’ve broken past trying to out iPhone the iPhone. Wonderful times ahead!