Nokia not to enter tablet market, yet

Stephen Elop, CEO, Nokia gave an interview on television recently where he spoke a bit about the company’s performance and future plans. Putting rumours to rest about Nokia’s tablet plans, Elop said that the Finnish phone manufacturer was not ready to enter the tablet market in the coming months.

A NASDAQ report quotes Elop saying, “Nokia does not have an exact plan…but was studying the markets carefully.” Elop’s response to questions about Nokia’s tablet plans are in line with earlier responses from the company about the issue. Only this time, he added, “Perhaps we will come (to market) one day,” raising the hopes of millions of Nokia loyalists the world over.

Nokia is studying the markets and trying to figure out how best to make its entry into the tablet world. It looks like the company is playing a game of wait and watch, assessing the market before making the tablet that will help Nokia carve a niche for itself. Given Nokia’s business partnership with Microsoft, whenever Nokia does design a tablet, it will most likely run on Windows 8 platform.

With players like Samsung, Apple, ASUS and others swiftly taking over the tablet world, Nokia will do well not to wait too long before making its foray into the segment.

In the past, Nokia took longer than its competitors to enter the smartphone market and is still trying to carve out a place for itself at the top. Hopefully, backed by Microsoft, the company will speed up things this time around. After all, millions of consumers who are used to working on the Windows platform on their computers would love to see it take a shape of a tablet. In fact, Nokia and Microsoft together may well succeed in narrowing the gap between tablets and laptops altogether.