
CEO: Nokia Considers Entering Laptop Industry  - mad44
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/pcs/news/2009/02/reuters_us_nokia_ceo
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old-gregg
A hint to Nokia: to instantly create a niche and a small army of devoted
followers, simply use _normal_ quality LCDs with full 24-bit color, LED
backlight, 178x178 viewing angle and matte finish.

I highlighted word _normal_ because I'm not asking for a miracle or Star Wars
grade technology, just the kind of quality displays that used to be _the norm_
on $1K+ business class laptops 2-3 years ago, but slowly got replaced by ugly,
cheap, unevenly lit, 6-bit color, often glossy junk [yes, even on macbooks]

In addition to my MBP's built-in display I have a 5 year old 17" Samsung
hooked up as secondary monitor and comparing the same photo on 2008 MBP vs
2003 Samsung depresses me.

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kirse
I'm a huge Nokia fan (N95 8gb here) but they keep building these "mobile
computers" that few people buy -- their Nokia Communicator / N800 Tablet are
two examples. They should stick to making great cellphones with awesome media
capabilities for now. It's the whole reason why I don't buy an iPhone, I get a
quality 5MP camera that does great VGA video at 30fps and has really loud
stereo speakers for playback.

The whole mini-Laptop thing (which I'm guessing Nokia is looking at) is just
another trend that will die off soon. It was a trend about a decade back with
the Toshiba Libretto and will die out as another fad once people (again)
realize how the mini-laptop is a failed compromise between a full laptop and
desktop.

Now a "slate" computer (like an 8.5x11" iPhone) would be sweet, so long as it
had a quality touch-OS.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_The whole mini-Laptop thing (which I'm guessing Nokia is looking at) is just
another trend that will die off soon. It was a trend about a decade back with
the Toshiba Libretto and will die out as another fad once people (again)
realize how the mini-laptop is a failed compromise between a full laptop and
desktop._

Wrong. The Libretto was never a huge success, but netbooks are. What's
happening now is not just another trend that will die off soon.

 _"By the end of 2008, Asustek had sold 5 million netbooks, and other brands
together had sold 10 million. (Europe in particular has gone mad for netbooks;
sales there are eight times higher than in the US.) In a single year, netbooks
had become 7 percent of the world's entire laptop market. Next year it will be
12 percent."_

From:
[http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netb...](http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks?currentPage=2)

That's billions of dollars and several years of millions of people buying
these things, using them, and continuing to buy them. There's a lot of trends
making this happen, including widespread wifi, cost, and so much of our
computing living in the cloud now, all of which are forecast to accelerate.

You may not like them personally, but these netbooks are here to stay.

~~~
kirse
Well I stand corrected on the figures then, but I certainly won't be using
one. My fingers can't take the agony of typing on a keyboard designed for
mice.

------
barredo
Apple into mobiles. Nokia into laptops.

What's next?

~~~
Ras_
Nokia has already been in the PC business with Nokia Data until 1991.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujitsu_Siemens_Computers> Excerpt:

"The origins of the company can be traced back to the merger of the PC-
divisions of the Finnish Nokia and the Swedish Ericsson in the mid 1980s when
Ericsson PCs were known for their ergonomics and bright colors.

In 1991 Nokia Data was sold to the British International Computers Limited
(ICL). Later ICL merged with Fujitsu.

The Nokia MikroMikko line of compact desktop computers continued to be
produced at the Kilo factories in Espoo, Finland.

Components, including motherboards and Ethernet network adapters were
manufactured locally, until production was moved to Taiwan. Internationally
the MikroMikko line was marketed by Fujitsu as the ErgoPro."

See also MikroMikko: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MikroMikko>

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Ras_
Original dialogue:

Q: "Will Nokia produce a mini-laptop of their own some day?" A (Nokia-CEO
Kallasvuo): "Never say never. Of course we are also actively looking into this
business opportunity."

Source: <http://areena.yle.fi/toista?id=1923984> (in Finnish)

------
Ras_
Somehow I managed to anticipate something like this 9 days ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=485620>

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ryanwaggoner
in the long run, I think we'll see more and more of this consumer electronics
cross-over. How much difference is there really between laptops, netbooks, and
smartphones? Seems like things are converging and overlapping in new ways
every day. Additionally, as computing gets woven more and more into the fabric
of our lives, the discrete devices maybe won't matter as much, which probably
isn't great for Nokia's brand. I'm just rambling, so maybe I'm way off.

------
gustaf
Oh no.

