Nokia delays phablet and tablet launches due to Surface clash

by Mark Tyson on 17 September 2013, 12:15

Tags: Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Windows 8, PC, Windows Phone

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Sources speaking to Reuters news agency say that a planned Nokia smartphone and tablet unveiling has been “pushed back by several weeks” following the Finnish company’s acquisition by Microsoft.

Microsoft announced the acquisition of Nokia in a $7.2 billion deal at the beginning of September.  While the pair are still acting as separate companies, the deal hasn’t yet completed, it seems like there has already been a knock-on effect on strategic timings.

Nokia 'Bandit'

A Nokia launch event scheduled for 26th September has been pushed back by several weeks. The event, also planned to take place in New York, was expected to showcase several new Nokia devices including a 6-inch phablet, the Nokia 1520 ‘Bandit’ and a 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet, the Nokia ‘Sirius’. A new date for these product launches couldn’t be confirmed by Reuters sources.

The reason for the change of Nokia’s unveiling plans is thought to be the clash in timings with Microsoft’s new hardware unveiling(s) at end of this month. Microsoft has issued invites for a New York ‘Surface’ themed event on Monday 23rd September. It doesn’t make sense to schedule the Nokia and Microsoft events so closely, especially as the RT powered Nokia Sirius and Surface 2 (with RT) offer very similar specs.

Nokia 'Sirius'

The latest information leaks about the Nokia Sirius tablet indicate that it will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor paired with an Adreno 330 GPU. Meanwhile most sources think that the Windows RT powered Surface 2 will have Nvidia inside – packing a Tegra 4 SoC.

HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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Posted by cptwhite_uk - Tue 17 Sep 2013 12:49
Microsoft - “dance for me”
Posted by crossy - Tue 17 Sep 2013 16:44
Hmm, that “Sirus” looks like someone slapped a Lumia 800 on a photocopy and dialled up the 300% setting. That out of the way, if the pricing is agressive (e.g. a 10" for the price of the Nexus 7) then I'll probably give a try, despite the drawbacks of RT.
Posted by TheAnimus - Tue 17 Sep 2013 17:29
crossy
Hmm, that “Sirus” looks like someone slapped a Lumia 800 on a photocopy and dialled up the 300% setting.
Like the iPad was?
crossy
That out of the way, if the pricing is agressive (e.g. a 10" for the price of the Nexus 7) then I'll probably give a try, despite the drawbacks of RT.
Haha, your kidding, the BOM will be a lot, lot higher. Tbh if its only £100 more, that's a really good achievement.
Posted by crossy - Wed 18 Sep 2013 08:26
TheAnimus
(Hmm, that “Sirus” looks like someone slapped a Lumia 800 on a photocopy and dialled up the 300% setting.) Like the iPad was?
Ah, but the iPad was just an excuse to deliver more magic to it's lucky owners. :puke:
TheAnimus
(If the pricing is agressive (e.g. a 10" for the price of the Nexus 7)) Haha, your kidding, the BOM will be a lot, lot higher. Tbh if its only £100 more, that's a really good achievement.
So that's £300+ for the Sirius - at that price you might be in with a shout, but if it was £350 then the Nexus 10 is going to be a more attractive buy, and at £399 then you're up against the iPad - no chance. Folks attach a lot of “recognition” to the “Windows” brand, but remember that this is RT, not “proper” Windows and it won't take long for disappointed customers to spread the word that an RT tablet is a dead end device compared to the Nexus 10* or iPad (depending on price).

EDIT: * and of course that £300-399 range also includes a lot of top flight gear like the Asus TF300 (£329 from Amazon WITH it's battery/keyboard/dock combo), Sony Xperia Z tablet (£389), Samsung Tab 3 (£321) or Note 10.1 (£345)

If Microsoft want to make RT a success then they either need to persuade developers that it's a must-have platform, (unlikely given the less than brilliant support for WP8, which imho makes a whole lot more sense than RT does), or price it so low that people can “take a chance” on it. I know I'm a Linux geek, but to be perfectly frank I'm a lot more interested in an Ubuntu tablet than an RT one.
Posted by TheAnimus - Wed 18 Sep 2013 10:54
I dunno.

I've not used my iPad in months… Seriously, it's in the drawer unit of technology I might need again soon along with a 3 year old desktop replacement grade laptop and other bits I've not needed in a while.

The iPad struggles to do anything well. Want to watch a movie? Good luck getting it on there. Want to look at some photos? Woh nelly, need you to jump through some hoops first. The web browser is really infuriating. It reminds me of trying to drive this 1l hire car with defective clutch after just driving a v8 the day before. Sure I can do it, but it sure as hell isn't good.

Then we get onto the larger android tablets. I've never found one that actually worked well with anything other than Chrome. The layout, the home mode everything is always stuffy. Most I will say browse the web really well, and the Transformer is certainly a good one for that, the touchpad makes it really easy for sites which use mouse over events. However the app ecosystem is problematic. Many target nothing above the 4", I find this a problem on the Nexus 7 enough as is. But many just give up or worse yet, XL versions… Lots of them. I can't recall if it was cut the rope or fruit ninja, but there were something like 6 versions of the game… Seriously wtf!

But my main complaint is you can't get anything done on them. If I want to write an email, I need a good spell chequer with grammer and such. To notice the incorrect use of a phonetically similar word. I'm very dyslexic but when in business I rely on technology to hide the fact I spell like an 11 year old (last time I was tested anyway).

An RT tablet can tick those boxes. An RT tablet is a lot more valuable than a transformer in terms of simple things, proper flash support so more of the web works (infuriatingly not Silverlight). Have a really, really good email client and MS Word.

Meanwhile it has great support for hardware, printing is easy. Plus there are plenty of good games in the store.

I think some of your complaints come from not actually using it. It is similar to the windows phone situation in there are fewer apps, MS often go round with the whole it's got 43 of the top 50 or something. But on the whole compared to Android I find most of the apps far superior in quality. That's not surprising, the tooling for making a WP app is much better than for android. But there is no getting away from the fact there isn't a first party instagram app, not that matters to me. This is sort of the same with RT. There isn't adobe lightroom. But there isn't on the other platforms either. You've got the Photoshop Express or whatever its called by adobe. Just like iOS and Android. In fact the only app I find missing is SkyDemon.

This is why my Surface RT generally goes everywhere with me. It is a really, really good tablet that can also be a little like a PC. The touch cover thing fixes the problem that the Transformer had, in terms of either having a very clunky keyboard and doubling in size, or being a lousy on screen affair.

So long as its got premium build quality, I can't see ~ £350 as being too much. The one to compare it against is the Surface 2

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