14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia was at some point the number one Windows Phone device manufacturer, with the company totally committed to the platform and always looking into ways to expand its product portfolio.
One of the handsets that the firm wanted to launch was the RX-100, a device that ran Windows Phone 8 and which featured a physical keyboard, just like a BlackBerry model.
Basically, Nokia wanted to combine a physical keyboard and touch support the same way BlackBerry managed to do earlier this year with the KEYone, trying to offer the best of two worlds to its customers.
With this model, Nokia was going after business users specifically, and in some way, it aimed at building a model that would compete against 2012 BlackBerry models with a combination of new hardware and a modern operating system like Windows Phone.
As you can see in these photos that got leaked to the web recently via WL, the phone was running Windows Phone 8, and Nokia worked together with Microsoft before the launch of this version of the mobile operating system to make sure everything was working correctly.
A mix of touch and physical keyboard
Additionally, the device featured an AMOLED screen, though its exact size is not known, and offered 2GB storage, which was supposed to be enough at that point. MicroSD card support was also planned for users who wanted more storage.
As far as the keyboard goes, it featured a total of 39 keys with no dedicated number row, so users had to press a combination of keys to input numbers.
Unfortunately, this device never made it to the market for a reason that we don’t know just yet, but it once again shows that Windows Phone had huge potential but lacked OEM support.
As for the future of the platform, nothing is known at this point, as not even Microsoft seems to be working on new devices right now. Microsoft could focus exclusively on enterprises with its mobile platform, but the hardware side of the OS remains uncertain.
