June and August are typically exciting months for Nokia fans, and it looks like the Finnish manufacturer aims high this year. What will the Tube offer?
We've pointed out earlier that Nokia has been unusually eager in demonstrating upcoming technology with its ongoing touchscreen phone project. The Finnish manufacturer is now at it again, leaking new information about its upcoming touchscreen phone.
Since Nokia typically announces new cell phones about six months in advance of release, there's a good chance that the currently dubbed "Tube" touchscreen phone will be announced at a Nokia event in either June or August of this year. Quite a few of the hottest phones from Nokia has been announced during these periods, and though we haven't been too excited about these summer events in the past couple of years, it now looks like Nokia is finally raising the bar.
If we should take an educated guess at what Nokia will focus on, it'll be connectivity, multimedia services and GPS. The former because that's Nokia at its core, always providing all the latest in connectivity options, while multimedia services are obviously a no-brainer too, now that Nokia is practically spending more time developing services than innovating in cell phone technology.
There's a good chance that GPS will play a vital part in the promotion of the new touchscreen phone too, so we wouldn't be surprised to see claims such as "the ultimate portable GPS navigator" at the time of release. Nokia has invested heavily in GPS services lately, and it looks like they'll go head-to-head with Garmin, if the latter gets the Nuvifone up and running. It could even look like Garmin will beat them in the release race, if the Nuvifone hits stores shelves already this fall.
As for the interface itself, we doubt there'll be any Apple magic in sight, as interface details have never been Nokia's strongest card. It's plausible to think that Nokia will breathe life into its Symbian Series 90 multimedia interface again though (old version sans touch). On the other hand, similar to Apple, we think Nokia will focus more on linking its own proprietary services tight to the touchscreen interface, than playing with openness ideas for this first-generation touchscreen phone.
Whether Nokia's iPhone-competitor will come with real support for AT&T's network, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, remains to be seen. Based on the popularity of the Xperia X1, however, it would obviously be a huge mistake on Nokia's part if it doesn't already from day one.
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