June 23rd, 2009: Nokia and Intel announce a joint venture.
August 12, 2009: Nokia and Microsoft announce a joint venture to develop Mobile Productivity Solutions. Perhaps more…
August 24, 2009: the Nokia Booklet 3G is born
If you’re a tech-enthusiast, you cannot but feel joyous when reading this note. Being loyal to a brand, you’d want to buy anything with the brand’s logo on it: a car, a mobile, a laptop, a washing machine, maybe a hair-dryer and a bed for your cat… and looks like Nokia’s getting there. First, the biggest market share of mobile phones. Scratch that out. Now on to netbooks. And the list looks long…
It seems Nokia had been eyeing the laptop (specifically the netbook) segment for a while now. Declaring a joint venture with Intel was the first hint. We all assumed Nokia was going to hit where it hurts most: the next-gen smartbooks that haven’t surfaced yet. With Qualcomm promising a generation (or breed) of new personal booklets – the smartbooks, things looked to be heading towards that segment as well. Then came the Nokia-Microsoft meeting which left bloggers and tech writers sore after talking so much about it. And we had thought that was it; a new generation of slightly bigger mobile phones, maybe a new breed of Internet Tablets, and a new Mobile Productivity Solution that would leave QuickOffice et al looking for answers and better ways to market their current offerings.
But that was not all. Nokia comes out of the closet today – a bit over 1 week before Nokia World ’09 – to unveil the new Booklet 3G, a Nokia product that will grace the netbook segment. Will it redefine mobility? It’s certainly not a breakthrough because many have preceded Nokia and played the right cards: Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens and many other manufacturers have launched at least one 3G-enabled laptop/netbook and are selling like hell. But wait. I am loyal to the brand. Aren’t you? If you are, then you’d be out there queuing up to buy Nokia’s first Booklet once it’s out, and let me tell you this, 1 billion Nokia owners can soon generate a huge revenue if only 10% of them bought this netbook. Just think of that for a moment. If you’ve already bought a mobile phone from Nokia and liked it, you’re most likely to buy their laptop. And their camera. And their Hi-Fi set…if there was such a thing.
On to the specs: the Nokia Booklet 3G isn’t going unnoticed. The Intel Atom processor is there, this video shows Windows 7 onboard, and that’s the result of a successful 3-way joint venture. But wait, there’s more… A 10.1-inch display with an HDMI output, 3 USB ports (that’s what you can spot in the pictures: 2 on the left side and 1 on the right), 2 stereo speakers located towards the front on each side, a 120GB hard disk drive, a video camera for conversations, and an SD card reader for additional memory.
It gets better. A-GPS for navigation is present; the idea is to use Nokia’s Ovi maps – a great solution if you’re not willing to get lost. Proved to be accurate so far, I’m a fan of this application and would recommend using it where supported. The Booklet has got Wi-Fi (b/g/n) connectivity going, Bluetooth, and 3G – yes 3G as in inserting a SIM card in it and using it anywhere – for utter mobility/connectivity. Made from a single slab of aluminum, this tiny thing weighs 1.2 Kg, and measures a mere 264 x 185 x 20 mm.
As for the best part, hold on to your seats: Nokia is claiming up to 12 hours of battery life for normal users, half of the people reading this not included. I’d say it’ll give me about 7 to 8 hours which is still very respectable. From both the video and the pictures, the keyboard looks tasty. Nothing on the RAM, the VGA, and the price so far, but we know what colors will be available: grey, blue, and black. Sadly, there’s no optical drive, and no Ethernet port so you’ll have to rely on external HDDs, SD cards, Wi-Fi and 3G for data transfer/connectivity. With 3 USB ports, I think this will not be an issue. Pricing, availability, and more specs will all be revealed at Nokia World, so stay tuned.
Nokia considers this new Booklet as being “another important ingredient in the move towards becoming a mobile solutions company”. We like it.
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