Nokia revives the brand with launch of iPad look-alike tablet, which is planned to be in stores in China in the first quarter of next year for an estimated price of $249 before taxes.
Nokia of Finland on Tuesday launched a new brand-licensed tablet
computer, which is designed to rival Apple’s iPad Mini, just six months
after the company sold its ailing phones and devices business to
Microsoft for over $7 billion.
Nokia, a name which was once synonymous with mobile phones until first
Apple and then Samsung Electronics eclipsed the Finnish company with the
advent of smart phones, said the manufacturing, distribution and sales
of the new N1 Tablet, will be handled under licence by Taiwan’s Foxconn.
The aluminium-cased N1, which runs on Google’s Android Lollipop
operating software but features Nokia’s new Z Launcher intelligent home
screen interface, is due to be in stores in China in the first quarter
of next year for an estimated price of $249 before taxes, with sales to
other markets to follow.
Sebastian Nystrom, head of products at Nokia’s Technologies unit, said
the company was looking to follow up with more devices and would also
look into eventually returning to the smartphones business by
brand-licensing.
“With the agreement with Microsoft, as is customary, we have this
transition and we can’t do smartphones... We have a time limit. In 2016
we can again enter that business,” Mr. Nystrom told Reuters.
“It would be crazy not to look at that opportunity. Of course we will look at it.”
Microsoft last week dropped the Nokia name on its latest Lumia 535
smartphone, which runs on its Windows Phone 8 operating system, but
still uses the brand for more basic phones.
Source: The Hindu
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