14 DAY TRIAL // Despite Intel's efforts in trying to draw a distinguishable line between the notebook and notebook market segments, as well as between the netbook and MID segments, you cannot but observe how these areas are converging into a single product. On that note, a recent statement on the part of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of the world's leading mobile phone maker, Nokia, further strengthens the belief that the line between smartphones, MIDs, netbooks and fully-fledged notebooks is getting thinner by the day.
In a recent interview with Finnish national broadcaster YLE, cited by Reuters, Kallasvuo says that the company, which is currently at the top of the mobile phone market, is seriously taking into consideration the possibility of an upcoming Nokia-branded laptop computer. “We are looking very actively also at this opportunity,” Kallasvuo said. “We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a cellphone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging,” Kallasvuo added.
The statement officially confirms initial beliefs according to which Nokia is planning to enter the laptop market with the release of an upcoming device. In addition, according to a recent article on mobile-review.com, Nokia is already hard at work, developing a new device that would combine the computing power of ARM's recently released multi-core Sparrow chip with the features of a Linux-based operating system. A prototype of the device already exists, but the product, which could probably be targeted at the growing market for MIDs, isn't slated for release before 2011.
Nokia is the most recent company to confirm its plans to venture into some other market segments, as it sees the opportunity for some more businesses under its portfolio. Just recently, Acer, the world's number 3 player in the market for personal computer systems has launched no less than 4 cellphone models. This confirms an ongoing trend for major companies to expand their product portfolio with the addition of some different products.