Nokia confirms netbook plans...

[mkrishnan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/companies/25nokia.html?_r=1&hpw

HELSINKI (Reuters) — Nokia, the world’s top cellphone maker, said on Monday it would start making laptops, entering a fiercely competitive but fast-growing market.

Nokia has seen its profit margins drop in recent quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia’s profits further.

“We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open,” Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia’s phone unit, said.

Its first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft’s Windows software and Intel’s Atom processor — offering up to 12 hours of battery life, and weighing 1.25 kilograms, about 2.5 pounds. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimized for surfing the Internet and performing other basic applications. Pioneered by Asustek in 2007, other brands such as HP and Dell have also pushed out their own lines since then. The research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent.

“Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment,” director of research at CCS Insight, Ben Wood, said. “At present we see Nokia’s foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business.”

Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of the device on Sept 2.

Since they seem to be (sensibly, for them) entering directly into the 3G-enabled end of the netbook market, it sounds like a device that will be sold through cell phone channels, which of course also makes sense. 12 hours, if true, is probably without 3G and would put it essentially at the top of the netbook battery life market, with the best current models around 10-11 hours without exceptionally ridiculous XL batteries, I think.

As a strategy for improving their performance, OTOH, meh.

 

[iPhone 62S]

Oh wow, a Nokia netbook, because I'm so pleased with my current Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that I'm getting rid of it a month after getting it new from the shop, so I will now rush out to buy something else made by Nokia with Windows installed on it!

 

[talkingfuture]

Looks interesting if somewhat derivative for the genre, I think I'd wait until seeing Apple's tablet plans if I were in the market for this.

 

[mkrishnan]

Looks interesting if somewhat derivative for the genre, I think I'd wait until seeing Apple's tablet plans if I were in the market for this.

Right now the hardware platform is kind of in between updates... I mean the more standard stuff, not anything that Apple might bring uniquely to the market.

The last major transition was a number of new netbooks that had Ion graphics or something along those lines. Intel is due for a significant update to the netbook version of the Atom towards the end of the year, and the new version (Pine Trail) will have on-chip graphics and that should lead to a new generation of netbooks that will probably pair this with Windows 7, but I don't think they're expected as Christmas sellers, and are rather expected to predominantly bow in the new year.

I kind of want a new one next year, that's in that rough range, although I don't particularly want/need a 3G modem in it. Whether Apple enters is certainly also interesting. It's the 10+ hour battery life in a <3 lb package that primarily excites me at this point, though. That combination is especially yummy for watching DVDs on airplanes.

 

[Stella]

Interesting, but Nokia enter a competitive market - they have certainly an up hill battle.

 

[localoid]

Nokia's concept OLED laptop from about a year ago was rather interesting... Maybe by the time OLED is practical we'll actually have decent 3G coverage within my area.

 

[MRU]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIHWM4liM2g

The 'booklet' video.

It's actually quite nice looking, much nicer than the Sony Vaio W that is about to be released too.

No word on price yet though.

 

[mkrishnan]

It's actually quite nice looking, much nicer than the Sony Vaio W that is about to be released too.

Agreed, it's gorgeous, maybe aside from there being some nicer looking keyboards I've seen. Hopefully they get fairly close to that. And (yeah, right) there's a version in the US that's available without being purchased through a service provider subsidy.

 

[mkrishnan]

A Nokia unveiling today revealed some details about upcoming phones as well as about this device...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/02/business/AP-EU-Germany-Nokia.html

(Emphases mine)

Nevertheless, Nokia unveiled new devices at its exhibition here, and offered more details about its new laptop, dubbed the Nokia Booklet 3G, which will ship in the fourth quarter of 2009 with Windows 7 and retail for euro575.

In contrast, many new netbooks by Asus, Lenovo and Dell are often priced around euro350 or less.

However, Nokia expects the Booklet 3G to be distributed by cell phone providers, many of whom will likely offer it for a much lower prices in concert with a two-year contract that includes monthly fees for Internet access using cell phone networks.

Nokia said it was already in talks about such an arrangement in Germany with mobile network operator 02.

Made of aluminum, it sports a 10-inch (25-centimeter) screen, weighs 2.8 pounds (1.3 kilograms) and boasts an Intel Atom 1.6 ghz chip, along with a gigabyte of memory. It will have a third-generation hot swappable SIM card to access cellular networks.

Unlike most netbooks, Nokia's Booklet will have a built-in GPS navigation chip coupled to Nokia's Ovi Maps software.

The E575 ($817 as of today) unsubsidized price is in the rough high-range of Nokia smartphones (viz. the N97, which will be E450/$644, unsubsidized, according to the article), so it would have to be heavily discounted to even get back to the price point of a typical netbook. The features, aside from the aluminum shell, GPS, and 3G modem, sound fairly typical.