Nokia adds Skype and Flash 9 as Internet Tablet expands its role
Nokia's Internet Tablet products have achieved strong operator interest and enterprise driven sales, though have hardly caught the consumer imagination in the same way as the iPhone or N Series. However, the devices - the 770 and the new 800 - represent the most credible attempt to date by an industry major from either the mobile or PC sector to deliver a genuine mobile internet platform, and so we are seeing the somewhat surreal prospect of the king of the cellphone business taking the driving seat in shifting the economics of that market towards open internet and PC-style assumptions. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Nokia's enthusiastic adoption of Linux for the tablets - far more wholehearted a commitment than Intel's in its own attempt, the UltraMobile PC - and in its support for the Skype free VoIP technology, included in the Tablet OS 2007 software upgrade, newly released to developers.
As well as supporting Skype, Tablet OS 2007 offers several other new features that are inevitably prompting comparison with the iPhone (in which, despite its noisy mobile internet pretensions, they are lacking). Prominent among them are inclusion of Adobe Flash for advanced video, and support for memory cards of up to 8Gbytes (with two slots the devices memory capability is extendable up to 16Gbytes. Over 2Gbytes SD memory cards must be SDHC compatible.)
This shows the Internet Tablet moving beyond its initial positioning as an enterprise notebook alternative, or a companion device for the cellphone, towards the more ambitious destiny Nokia has mapped out for it, as a fully blown open internet/media device - the reason Sprint Nextel is so interested in the product for its forthcoming WiMAX network. Its success in this role depends on the growth of mobile web services, which will - as in the PC-based internet - increasingly see businesses and consumers carrying out most of their communications and transactions via the browser and other interfaces such as widgets. As these web services, underpinning major changes in behaviour such as Web 2.0, evolve, so tablet-type devices, as opposed to small screen smartphones, will start to become essential.
That is Nokia's vision anyway, and it is already starting to position itself to take advantage, even if that means lessening its devotion - some would say prematurely - to closed architectures, proprietary operating systems, cellular radios and walled gardens as the main mobile structures. The launching of a VoIP-only (non-cellular) product by the GSM leader is just one sign of that bravery, and the Tablets have been highly praised for their VoIP capabilities, so that Skype support - as an alternative to the more standardized, SIP-based Gizmo client that Nokia has previously promoted - should stimulate usage.
Among the other new features in the new OS release - the fourth to date - Nokia says an Adobe Flash 9 browser plug-in was the most requested by users because it opens the way to rich media web sites and improves web usability, as well as boosting streaming performance. There has also been considerable work on extending battery life, especially when online, while touchscreen sensitivity has been improved through software enhancements.
