Nokia patiently ponders tablet strategy to set itself apart

Nokia boss Stephen Elop is keen to not just be another brick in the tablet wall, according to comments he made to Finnish TV network YLE:

“There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well. And, my challenge to the team is I don’t want to be the 201st tablet on the market that you can’t tell from all of the others.”

So what’s the solution? A “uniquely Nokia” perspective, apparently. Elop is keeping quiet on what exactly this means though, just saying the group could opt to incorporate Microsoft’s technology into their tablet for a Windows product, or use some of the company’s own technology; “[Our] teams are working very hard on something that would be differentiating relative to everything else that’s going on in the market.”

Nokia is more concerned with doing this right than doing it fast – the group is undergoing some significant changes of late, with yesterday revealing it is letting 4,000 employees go. Nokia isn’t the only company coming later to the tablet party either, with Sony saying earlier this week it is planning two tablets for release some time towards the end of the year. One of these tablets will be a dual screen device, suggesting designers are starting to think of new ways to crack this quickly saturating market. Now the challenge’s on for Nokia to impress.

[via Engadget]