It’s no secret that Nokia had been struggling to keep up with the rate of change within the mobile market, especially since iOS and Android really started to gain momentum, however with their shift to Windows Phone and a fresh outlook, the mobile giant has been taking steps to turn things around.
The Financial Times caught up with former Nokia CEO, Jorma Ollila, who explained where the company may be headed in the near future following the increasing uptake of Lumia Windows Phone devices.
Mr Ollila explained that beyond smartphones, we can expect to see Nokia extend their portfolio to incorporate tablets and ‘hybrid’ devices too,
“Tablets are an important one, so that is being looked into, and there will be different hybrids, different form factors [handset designs] in the future.”
Although throwing about the term ‘hybrid’ may not give much away, suspicions leads us to believe that Nokia could well be working on a Samsung Galaxy Note-style ‘phablet’ running Windows Phone, which would make it the first device sporting Microsoft’s mobile OS to enter that market segment.
On the company’s strategic trouble in recent years, Jorma said:
“Four years from mid-2008 to today the returns have not been where they should have been. The company saw it and it was broadly accepted but the software capability and particularly the platform software knowhow was not there. The competitors were faster, and bringing their solutions to the marketplace faster.”
It appears that cogs are already turning and Nokia are setting their sights on regaining a position amongst the top manufacturers on the scene. Jorma was confident that the projects under development will be able to “make a difference”, but as and when these devices arrive remains a mystery.
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