Gadgets

Category: Gadgets

Nokia returns to tablet commerce with a new Android device

Julie Campbell | November 24, 2014

The former handset maker has now unveiled a new product that will run on Google’s mobile software.

Nokia has announced its official return to tablet commerce with the unveiling of a mobile device that will be running on the Android operating system, and will mark a return of the former smartphone manufacturer into the world of hardware.

This unveiling of the Nokia tablet came only a few short months after Microsoft purchased its handset business.

This new addition to the tablet commerce marketplace will be called the N1 and will be using Nokia’s own software on top of Android. This, according to the Nokia head of products, Sebastian Nystrom, who spoke in Helsinki at the Slush technology conference. The device will sell for $249 and will be both made and sold by the Foxconn Technology Group. The first release of the tablet will be in China, during the first quarter of next year, but Nokia expects that the N1 will become available in other markets not long afterward.

This entry into tablet commerce is just the latest in a number of sharp turns the company has taken.

Nokia has been around for 149 years and has managed to keep itself alive through its willingness to transform itself while hopping from one industry to the next, as necessary. Rajeev Suri has been its CEO since May and was behind the sale of the company’s mobile phone unit – which was bleeding money – to Microsoft, for around $7.5 billion. Suri is now stepping out from the wireless network equipment field, which currently makes up about 90 percent of the sales of this Finland based company.

Nystrom explained that “We wanted to start with something small that caters to our fans,” adding that “There is room for better products out there.”

In response to this announcement, the shares at Nokia rose immediately by 1.5 percent to reach 6.31 euros. The stock rose by 7.7 percent this year, already, giving a market value to the company of 23.6 billion euros ($30 billion). It will be interesting to watch the interest generated in the new tablet commerce offerings at Nokia once the product is available for purchase.

Mobile phones will reach 90 percent penetration by 2020

Rebecca | November 24, 2014

This prediction was produced in an Ericsson Mobility Report that was recently issued by the company.

According to a recent Ericsson Mobility Report, within the global population over the age of 6 years, there will have been a 90 percent penetration of mobile phones by the year 2020, and there will be an estimated 6.1 billion smartphone subscriptions around the world.

The report showed that the markets that will experience the fastest growth include India and China.

India has already seen 18 million new mobile phones subscriptions, and China is anticipated to see 12 million new subscriptions, within the third quarter of this year, alone. In this year as a whole, the report predicted that there will be a worldwide total of 2.7 billion subscriptions when the 800 million new subscriptions that will have been added throughout the year. The report revealed this year’s growth trends while predicting that they will continue at a rapid rate over the five years to follow.

The report also showed that the use of mobile phones in terms of internet traffic will grow in specific areas.

Mobile Phone Use For example, by 2020, of all of the mobile data traffic consumed worldwide, there will be an increase in video traffic to the point that it will make up 55 percent of total data. This will represent an increase in video traffic by ten times.

These forecasts were meant to provide a comprehensive update with regards to mobile trends. The predictions were based on big data that was gleaned from live networks around the world. According to the Ericsson senior vice president, chief strategy officer, and head of M&A, Rima Qureshi, “The falling cost of handsets, coupled with improved usability and increasing network coverage, are factors that are making mobile technology a global phenomenon that will soon be available to the vast majority of the world’s population, regardless of age or location.”

Qureshi went on to add that this most recent report from Ericcson has shown that in six years from now, there will be greater connectivity through subscriptions with mobile phones around the world than has ever been seen.