Nokia is rumored to be setting their sights on the lucrative tablet market. The Finnish handset maker is reportedly preparing a 10-inch slate running Windows RT for a February 2013 introduction at Mobile World Congress.
This isn’t the first time we have heard rumblings with regards to a Nokia tablet. The company was reportedly working on the very same tablet earlier this year but decided to halt production when Microsoft unveiled their Surface tablet in June. Nokia allegedly wanted to wait and see if there was any demand for the tablet before resuming development.
Sources familiar with the subject say Nokia may use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor to power the device but one has to wonder if they can produce a Windows RT tablet that’s more appealing than the Surface and if they could make a worthwhile profit doing so.
Since Microsoft sells the Surface directly, they don’t have to pay licensing fees for the platform – something Nokia and other manufacturers are required to do. That is, unless Nokia is able to work out a deal with Microsoft to reduce or eliminate the licensing fee on account of being a key Windows Phone 8 maker.
Furthermore, we still aren’t entirely sure just how well the Surface is selling as there seems to be mixed opinions on the subject. ZDNet says some analysts believe demand has been weak which mirrors web metric data. Yet at the same time, a separate report points out that the Surface tablet is the most popular Windows 8 and RT device on the market, surpassing desktop and notebook computer adoption.
