Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has taken part in an online discussion and opened up the doors of Nokia to the general public. What did you guys want to know? Well it seems the Nokia Tablet, Nokia Lumia 920 ‘pure’ colours, QWERTY Windows Phone and the ‘war of ecosystems’ are top of the agenda.
Tech website Engadget got to spend some time in Nokia House and even had a live broadcast with Nokia CEO and head honcho Stephen Elop. Opening the discussion up to the public offered an insight into what seems to be of interest to the wider world, tablets, form factors and microSD slots seem to be burning issues.
Check out the best questions and answers from the broadcast and then see what you missed over at Engadget.
Is Nokia looking into making a Windows 8 tablet?
Stephen Elop: So, we haven’t announced anything in the tablet space yet. A couple of things are very clear… the common user experience across Windows Phones, tablets, PCs, etc. is something that is going to encourage users to expect a common digital experience. ALso, the visibility of the “Metro” (ooops, can’t call it that) experience is going to drive a lot more visibility for our products. At Nokia, we definitely believe in the importance of that common experience.
What is the contingency plan if Windows Phone 8 fails for Nokia?
Stephen Elop: Our strategy is based on the premise that this is a “war of ecosystems”. Apple, Android and Windows Phone. We have clearly decided to focus our efforts on Windows Phone for this current war. At the same time, we are always working on what comes next … that’s not about going sideways or backwards … but rather how the mobile world evolves. How do user experiences evolve? What role does HTML5 play? etc. etc. So, today we fight with Windows Phone while we lead the world forward and beyond.
Do you have any plan to launch other form factors including, for example, QWERTY?
Stephen Elop: Over time, you will see different sizes and formats. For example, the race for larger and larger screens continues, and yet is not the right answer for many people. You will also see us continue to evolve the Fabula design language to account for some of our advances in photography, etc. As for QWERTY, this is one of the more hotly debated topics. Over the last few years, we have been often the largest producer of QWERTY devices (popular in emerging markets as well as in business), and yet the trend seems to be moving heavily away from this… particularly because of the quality of the text prediction on WP (awesome).
Why doesn’t the 920 have 1700MHz band?
Stephen Elop: Good question. Again, we made design tradeoffs based on the different consumer and operator interests. We have to be very deliberate about these choices because of the interplay of antennas and other things in the device. We’ll keep watching this to gauge demand.
Can you please tell us why there is no SD card slot in the Lumia 920?
Stephen Elop: It was a design and engineering tradeoff for us. From the design side with our flagship product, we were very focused on having clean lines of design with the smallest number of interruptions as possible. As well, we were already packing a LOT into the 920 … the floating lens technology, wireless charging, etc. With the availability of SkyDrive and LTE, we made that choice.
Will there be any other colours for the Lumia 920, like say, Cyan or Lime?
Stephen Elop: I’ve definitely heard the request for Cyan and someone here just asked for “Xbox Green” (seriously??) You should expect to see us introduce different colours as we move forward, but we’re really excited about the “pure” colours that you are seeing … red and yellow rock.
We’ll have to wait and see how the Nokia roadmap unfolds but with Elop happy to open up the business and allows users to take a look at the Nokia business it’s clear we’re at the start of an amazing time for Nokia and Windows Phone.
What do you think, would you like to see a Nokia Tablet or a Nokia QWERTY Windows Phone device? Let us know where you’d take Nokia next if you were in the big seat!
