Is This The Nokia Lumia Slate? I Hope so!

A tablet is the missing piece of Nokia’s mobile strategy. So far the company has only whispered about its plans, but more evidence of a Nokia tablet popped up at Pakistan Nokia event. For a brief moment, the stage’s screen showed a tablet, likely a 7-inch, alongside a Nokia 620 and a large desktop screen, possibly demonstrating a Surface Pro-ish device.

Nokia is striving for a complete mobile ecosystem centered around Windows. The company has successfully positioned its Lumia line as the premier Windows Phone line, and it’s completely possible that the brand could move into the tablet space as well. For the nostalgic, a Nokia tablet could be the 3390 to Windows Mobile world.

Right now Windows tablets are priced to compete. The Surface RT is the same price as the iPad and the Pro costs as much as an Ultrabook or MacBook Air. If Nokia could squeak out a budget Win8/RT tablet at a lower price point, it could help both Microsoft and Nokia.

The tablet shown at the Pakistan event looks like a smaller model — probably 7-, to 8-inches. At that size and perhaps with the help of a plastic casing, Nokia could preemptively sweep the small Windows tablet space much like the Kindle Fire did the mini tablet market.

As much as Windows tablets needs more compelling hardware, it needs compelling apps as well. And, hopefully like with other platforms, the two will grow simultaneously. Hopefully with more hardware partners jumping on board, more developers will see the opportunity and start coding for Windows 8/RT.

Nokia is gearing up for a big showing at MWC. The show is in two weeks and if a tablet is in the works for 2013, it will likely debut at largest mobile conference in the world. [TechCrunch]

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Apple's record profits contrasted with Amazon's hopes to turn a profit

Apple's profits for fiscal 2012 reached above $40 billion, making it the only tech company to ever reach that benchmark. In fact, it's a feat only ever matched by oil giant Exxon Mobil.

Apple's financial performance invites comparisons with other companies such as Amazon, which has taunted the iPad maker with a rival business plan oriented around ad and content sales, rather than seeking to earn profits primarily on hardware.

A report by Bloomberg writer Mark Gimein contrasted the two companies, noting that while Apple reported quarterly earnings of $13.5 billion this winter, Amazon has only reported a total of $5 billion in earnings spanning from 2003, the first year it turned a profit, through the end of 2011, the full last year it has reported earnings.

In the previous quarter, Amazon actually lost $274 million, but Gimein states the company is "expected to turn a profit" for 2012.

"By conventional metrics," Gimein writes, "Amazon’s earning are so low that it’s almost senseless to talk about them."

He added, "Apple makes so much money that investors are leery of whether it can continue growing. In stark contrast, Amazon has made so little that, paradoxically, it continues to hold out the prospect of limitless growth."

Amazon has been around since 1997. Its Kindle-branded tablet efforts long predated the iPad, having been introduced in late 2007. But its two year lead in tablet-sized mobile devices, followed by three years of direct competition with the iPad, haven't come anywhere close to matching Apple's performance in mobile hardware. Amazon won't report how many Kindles have sold, but its tablet business isn't resulting in Apple-style profits.

Money from content?

Amazon embarked upon an effort to undercut Apple's iTunes song sales with its own discounted MP3 store in late 2007. Five years later, Amazon still has a relatively small music business limited to nine countries, compared to Apple's world leading online music store now available in 119 countries.

Two years ago, Amazon fractured Google's Amazon tablet platform to introduce a rival to Apple's iOS App Store with the same branding, in order to sell software content to a series of Android-based devices. However, it has not been able to consistently turn a profit doing so. Amazon operates in six countries; Apple's App Store is available in 155.

Apple reported $2.1 billion in revenues from iTunes in the winter quarter, but the company has regularly described its iTunes-related online services as designed to operate as an enhancement to its hardware business, without needing to turning a significant profit. Amazon isn't turning a significant profit on content sales either, but it's also not profiting from hardware.

That calls into question the widely held hope that advertising and content sales will be able to fund competitive efforts to develop mobile products to rival the iPod, iPhone and iPad, whether those efforts involve Android or not.

Amazon is scheduled to report its winter quarter results Tuesday January 29. [AppleInsider]

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Asus Releases it's Answer to The Microsoft Surface Pro

Asus is stepping up to the Windows 8 tablet game with its Intel Atom powered 10.1-inch tablet, the Asus VivoTab ME400 alongside a rather familiar clip-on keyboard cover. Is this your Microsoft Surface Pro beater, or is it just a wannabe?

Asus’ affordable tablet measures up at a mere 9.7mm thick and weighs 580g, and packs an HD touchscreen display. Much like Microsoft’s foray into tablet hardware, Asus also offers an optional keyboard cover priced at £89.99 that protects the device, serves as a stand and also adds some added tactile input.

The tablet’s powered by a nippy dual-core Intel Atom processor and 2GB RAM, which means that it should be able to keep up with all the tasks you can throw at it. And because it’s Intel-powered, it’s also compatible with both Windows 8 Store and your regular Windows desktop apps – just don’t expect to be playing all the latest high-end games on it.

The tablet also has an 8-megapixel, 1080p full HD video recording camera with autofocus on the back, while a two-megapixel front facing camera gears up the tablet for video chat. Priced at £399, it makes it a reasonable alternative to Microsoft’s Surface Pro, especially since that’s not on sale yet. Microsoft’ Surface RT is out now, but it’ll only run new, full-screen apps from the Windows store.

Will this be your new tablet based workhorse, or are you holding out for the Surface Pro? Let us know what you think in the comments below. [GadgetShow]

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