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Nokia's N1 Android Tablet Is Actually a Foxconn Tablet
sfcrazy writes:
"Nokia surprised everyone when it announced the N1 Android tablet during the Slush conference in Finland, today. This story has a twist, though: the N1 is not a Nokia device. Nokia doesn't have a device unit anymore: it sold its Devices and Services business to Microsoft in 2013. The N1 is made by Taiwanese contract manufacturing company Foxconn, which also manufactures the iPhone and the iPad.
But Nokia's relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple's. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn. In the case of N1, Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution, and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, the Z Launcher software layer, and the IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.
But Nokia's relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple's. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn. In the case of N1, Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution, and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, the Z Launcher software layer, and the IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.
If you have a look at the pictures, you can see that it has more than a similarity to the iPad mini than just "rounded corners". It basically looks identical except for the Apple Logo and home button.
Now with this piece of news, it does seem like Foxconn have ripped off the iPad mini design (given their detailed knowledge of the manufacturing process) and are using the "Nokia" (Microsoft) brand to sell it, given that Microsoft have a cross-licensing deal with Apple that lets Microsoft and Apple rip each other off as much as they like.
It seems that Apple can't do a thing about it. They can't even get rid of Samsung components in their devices, how would they ever get away from Foxconn.
Foils!
Hm.
It's a quad-core Atom, not ARM, meaning apps using the NDK will have to either be recompiled to x86 or run in emulation. But if the bootloader is unlocked, watch someone figure out how to dual boot Android/x86 with Windows 8.1.
What does the fox say? Apparently Boom Boom.
This is the problem with outsourcing manufacturing and keeping the "brand". Eventually, if they're good, the outsourcing company takes over. It's about time for this to happen to Apple. The hardware is approaching maturity. The last rev of the iPhone was only a minor change over the previous one, and the technology was comparable to HTC's product of two years ago.
I really don't want a power hungry Intel CPU on a tablet, no matter how many benchmarks are faked to make it seem as fast and as low power as an equivalent Arm.
Most android apps will run without issues, that shouldn't be a problem anymore as there have been some Intel tablets out there for several months (I've seen some Asus in bargain bins at the Cora supermarket chain).
Still, the only advantage is if someone manages to run Linux on it. Might make up for the extra heat and lower battery life, to be able to run full featured Linux on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn#Major_customers
how the mighty have fallen.
Nokia, Nokia - wherefore art thou, Nokia.
This is the problem with outsourcing manufacturing and keeping the "brand". Eventually, if they're good, the outsourcing company takes over.
It's about time for this to happen to Apple. The hardware is approaching maturity.
Apple still controls the design process, the software, the ecosystem, the supply chain, the sales channels, the support channels, etc. In other words, everything that counts. Just as importantly, it also reportedly keeps contractors on an extremely tight lead; I'd gather they do so because they view the actual manufacturing process (i.e. being able to make a gazillion phones with surgical precision) as a vital in-house skill. As such, I wouldn't expect Foxconn to try to dump Apple anytime soon.
Contrast this with Boeing: it reportedly outsources things like wing design (i.e. the key stuff) to japanese firms. Its founder was adamant to keep the stuff in-house. Outsourcing it is the kind of decision that killed Boeing's US competitors. Yet here they are, outsourcing what reportedly is the most important aspects of making a plane. Oops.
Many phone and tablet sellers don't even design them anymore.
iOS secret sauce has a minority share of the market now, so they've already lost the OS battle to Android. OS is just like a camera, or processor or screen to Foxconn now, a component to be bought and used.
But also, you'll see that *BRAND* is a component too, Foxconn wanted a brand, and Nokia is just a brand name now, and so Foxconn is using their brand name.
You have this tablet, by pure specs doesn't look that much better than the newer atom tables coming out and the glorified auto app sorter for your android (Z Launcher)? When I worked for US Nokia as a lowly support, developers and managers were just screaming at Finland about trying something to innovate. If you didn't speak Finish, your opinion didn't matter.
To make matters worst, they thought they "won" when they released the N97 and just planned to make reversions off that thing. Sure it was good, but they just never paid attention to Google. Got laid off about 6 months after that.
So now that the non-compete clause is almost over they are trying again? I still think Stephen Elop was a Trojan horse. It doesn't help maters how he and his cronies got a sweet deal after the merger.
I know Nokia isn't "just a phone company". They have multiple divisions and a large part of Finland economy. But to just come out with an Android tablet, branded launcher all relying on Foxcom's support and build quality? I am not saying I know much about Foxcom, but it still feels kind of a big gamble right after you get burned badly from a market you dominated. What the hell are they thinking?
I'm in your networks, relaying your packets and you know.. connecting people. Found it to be more profitable because the chinese will take over mobile devices anyways in 10 years. I'm actually turning profit again, market cap is going to reach 30 Billion soon, and the future is looking bright.
Yours,
Nokia
This will first be launched in the Chinese market.
Perhaps the whole "sold and supported by Foxconn" is simply the result of Foxconn having a lot more experience with the Chinese market than Nokia has.
If this ever comes to Europe or the US, I'd expect Foxconn to handle only manufacturing. Just like Apple devices.
With Foxconn being a Chinese/Taiwanese company, couldn't Apple go to some contract manufacturer in Vietnam, set up a giant manufacturing complex in Vietnam and train that manufacturer? There's now only one Apple, and multiple manufacturers.
there's a huge shortage of STEM workers in the West!
Sure there is.
super.
"Jolla launched Sailfish 2.0 Tabled that is crowd funded . The indiegogo crowd funding collected the targetted $380,000 in just in 138 minutes of the launch. The Jolla Tablet features a 7.9-inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1563. The device is powered by a 1.8GHz 64-bit quad-core Intel processor, comes with a 32GB of storage, has 2GB of RAM and a 5MP rear camera. Judging by its size, we can see that this is another take on the iPad Mini and even on the ‘sister’ company Nokia. While there aren’t too many Sailfish-specific apps available, just like the phone, Jolla’s tablet will be compatible with Android apps."
For a little extra money you can by a commemorative edition tablet. Shaped like a toombstone each one has the engraved signature of a different Foxconn factory line worker. This is not just a tablet, it's an investment. Like a piece of art it is valuable only after the artist has died these tablets are sure to be worth more after the employee has jumped out the window.
That's one of the chief advantages of using a VM to execute your bytecode.
Provided that an app's model is written in a language that has been ported to that VM. An app can ideally be split into a "model", the part that interacts with data, and a "view", the part that performs input and output. Versions of an app for multiple platforms can either translate the model line-by-line in each platform's preferred language or share the model and only rewrite the view. An advantage of the latter approach is that human errors in manual translation are minimized, and fixes to the model on one platform propagate to other platforms. So an Android app that shares its model with a desktop version of the same app written in C++, Objective-C, or a .NET language is probably going to reuse that model. (Or has standard C++ been ported to run on top of the JVM?)
And provided that the app isn't one for which profiling reveals Java's garbage collection to be a huge bottleneck.
Here I was thinking that the custom designed Apple A7 was the first 64 bit ARM chip available to consumers until you come along and tell me that HTC had one two years ago and that it was as powerful as the Apple A8. I can't wait to see the HTC device of today which is equivalent of the iPhone two years into the future!
I'm aware of fat binaries dating back to the mid-90s when Mac OS was still on VII, and "fat" meant "68LC040 and PowerPC". A fat binary includes the C++ code compiled to ARM object code and the same C++ code compiled to x86 object code. But if you wrote part of your app in ARM assembly language, you can't recompile it quite as easily. And if your app contains a JIT engine, good luck porting that.
This reminds me of what happened with Asus. Essentially Foxconn are also starting to move up the food chain. First they start by manufacturing small components, later full devices and now the entire customer care. It won't be long before they start selling directly to customers and cut out the middle-man altogether.
See title.