The slate is supposed to hit shelves in mid-February

Nov 27, 2014 09:52 GMT  ·  By

The first product for the consumer market to be released by Nokia after the Finnish company sold its devices division to Microsoft is a tablet called N1.

The slate was officially introduced last week with the promise of an early 2015 release. However, during Nokia N1’s launch event, the Finnish company announced that the tablet would be initially released only in China in mid-February.

Although Nokia states that the slate will eventually make it to other countries as well, it did not share additional details on the matter.

Now, European Communications reports that Kathrin Buvac, Nokia Networks VP of Corporate Strategy, confirms the N1 will certainly be available for purchase in Europe soon after launching in China.

Although the N1 is a Nokia-branded product, the tablet is manufactured by Foxconn. Still, the Finnish company is the one that provided the design.

Buvac goes on and says that her company has taken to heart the experience with the mobile division that ended up being sold to Microsoft and that it’s “important to understand from a business model perspective that we provide our brand and the design criteria, but the manufacturing, sales, delivery, care and maintenance is with Foxconn. That is the key difference.”

Nokia does not have sales channels anymore, hence the partnership with Foxconn

More importantly, Kathrin Buvac also states that Nokia doesn’t have any sales channels whatsoever, which is why the company decided to partner with Foxconn when it comes to distribution, sales and maintenance.

“We don’t see [Nokia N1] like we are going to market with a product. We have no sales channel, no stores. It’s a totally different model so not comparable with what we did before.”

Nokia N1 is expected to go on sale in mid-February for just $250 (€200) plus taxes. A few months later, Jolla, another Finnish tech company, confirmed the release of its own tablet, which will sell for a similar price.

Although there’s enough market for both tablets, it looks rather weird that both Finnish companies have decided to announce their first tablets just one day apart. Not to mention that they will be available on the market around the same timeframe.

Let’s hope that both Nokia N1 and Jolla Tablet will sell very well when they hit shelves next year. Frankly, we don’t see these slates not selling well considering their powerful specs and low price.

Given the smaller display size (7.9-inch), both tablets will compete with Apple’s iPad mini 3, which is much more expensive at $400 (€320).

Nokia N1 Tablet (5 Images)

Nokia N1 tablet
Nokia N1 (front)Nokia N1 (front horizontal)
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