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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.
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.
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.
Nope, only the phone division of Nokia was sold to Microsoft... this product is by one of the other divisions of Nokia not part of Microsoft.
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.
What else is distinctive about an iPad apart from those two things? Really, all tablets look the same. They're basically just a rectangular touch-screen. About the only variations possible in their hardware are colour, size, and buttons - and some utilitarian designs as to which ports are located where, which are hardly distinctive.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
it does seem like Foxconn have ripped off the iPad mini design
actually it says this is a Nokia design:
Nokia is responsible for the industrial design
and are using the "Nokia" (Microsoft) brand
wrong, from the summary:
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.
given that Microsoft have a cross-licensing deal with Apple that lets Microsoft and Apple rip each other off as much as they like.
but Microsoft has nothing to do with this, Nokia is not owned by Microsoft, they just sold one of their divisions (one that is not involved with this device at all) to Microsoft.
how is parent modded "informative" it is completely wrong in every aspect except pointing out the similarity to the ipad. in fact it is plainly clear the commenter did not even read the summary much less the article and just started commenting based on what he thought the story might be about and then drawing conclusions. should be modded "misinformative".
What else is distinctive about an iPad apart from those two things? Really, all tablets look the same. They're basically just a rectangular touch-screen. About the only variations possible in their hardware are colour, size, and buttons - and some utilitarian designs as to which ports are located where, which are hardly distinctive.
Sure... except that this one has exactly the same colour (although Apple has three colours and they have only copied two of them), exactly the same size, exactly the same buttons in exactly the same locations, ports in exactly the same location except that Apple has two rows in their speaker grill and this has three rows of holes and it has USB-Type C instead of Lightning (which are also visually indistinguishable from each other).
The design is so close one has to wonder if they are actually using the same machinery for some of the components between this tablet and the iPad. They really are that similar.
You're mistaken... the independent Nokia still has a mapping, network equipment and devices business.
All that remains at Nokia is a skeleton of upper management
Nokia is now a network solutions company, and they are doing pretty well.
(and not even that really, most of those work for Microsoft now too. Including Nokia's CEO).
Nokia's current CEO Rajeev Suri certainly does not work for Microsoft.
market cap is 25Billion, and has some 50000 employees.
Nokia wasn't just a phone company you know?
Wow! I had no idea the rubber boot business was so lucrative.
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?
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.
Um, you know Android is Linux, right? There's not much special about the Linux kernel in Android, just a few tweaks to the stock kernel to make it suitable to the environement on which it runs.
Almost all the Android special sauce is the user space, so the main difference between an Android system and a regular Linux distribution is what happens when PID 1 is executed. Change init, and you change the system entirely.
Run a debian chroot under Android if you want a regular looking Linux. Install a terminal app on android, and use a BT keyboard for input, and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference from a regular Linux distro command line.
"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."