The emergence of micro-tablets : Nokia 770

Nokia - Nokia 770 The big news is that Nokia will release in the fall of 2005, the 770 - a new device in micro-tablet form factor. There are two main features of note - it will be running Linux rather than Symbian OS, and it is not a mobile phone. At first glance, the 770 is quite impressive : 4-inch 800x480 screen, WiFi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth, ample memory (64MB RAM + 64MB user accessible flash drive + RSMMC expansion slot). Since it runs on Linux, Nokia has wisely piled on the applications : web browser, email, RSS news reader, media player (plays many video formats including MPEG4, Real, AVI and 3GP), music player (Internet radio support, MP3, AAC, WAV and others). There's no mention of Calendar or other PIM (personal information management) applications. It's clearly designed to work with existing Nokia phones that has Bluetooth and GPRS/EDGE/3G, as well as direct connections to public hotspots or your own wireless LAN. The main weak point as I see it is the battery life - the Nokia 770 comes with a 1500 mAh battery, which is only good for 3 hours of browsing. Hopefully the battery is compatible with Nokia's regular phone batteries. There's already a developer community, and MobileBurn is the first with a hands-on report. This new device hits squarely at a niche in between PDAs and notebooks. Microsoft has so far been unable to make the Tablet PC a runaway success. It's high time that companies create room for complimentary devices, rather than all-in-one solutions that are touted as desktop replacement, notebook replacement, etc. The Nokia 770 and the just-released palmOne LifeDrive are healthy signs of an emerging micro-tablet market. What everyone's really waiting for is Apple's oft-rumoured tablet device - perhaps in time for Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) to be held early next month.