Nokia Connection 2011 goes down in Singapore on Tuesday, and we’re expecting big things from the stumbling phone giant. No fewer than four vice presidents will be speaking at the summit, along with CEO Stephen Elop, who we’re promised “will set the stage for a number of exciting Nokia product and service launches.”
But what? Here are five things we’re hoping to see next week…
A Nokia MeeGo phone already
The Nokia-MeeGo-Intel relationship has had many twists and turns. We’re expecting a phone running the operating system…sometime. And an advert did leak out a while ago, making it look like a rather swanky Nokia E7. Hopefully, Nokia Connection 2011 will see its debut, at long, long last.
More details on the first Nokia Windows Phone
Elop briefly pulled out a prototype at a San Diego conference earlier this month, and we know the first handset is coming in Q4 this year. But let’s have a name, some more details, a picture. Anything to help keep that flame alive.
Nokia’s map plans for Windows Phone
One of Nokia’s biggest weapons is its mapping prowess. It owns Navteq and Ovi Maps (with free turn by turn navigation) is easily the best thing Symbian still has going for it. Elop’s made clear that he plans to share the wealth with other Windows Phone partners, such as Samsung, but what exactly will we see? Nokia Maps on all Windows Phones? Here’s hoping.
S40 stepping up a gear
Nokia’s dumping its smarter Symbian and Symbian S60 platforms to concentrate on the low power S40 for emerging markets. But Nokia’s been peddling the same basic S40 phones for years now: it needs to step up and show us what it can really do with the barebones software. Can it beat the Nokia C3?
A Nokia tablet
Nokia boss Elop said back in April that he doesn’t want Nokia to “be the 201st tablet on the market that you can’t tell from all of the others. We have to take a uniquely Nokia prospective and so the teams are working very hard on something that would be differentiating relative to everything else that’s going on in the market.” What that could be, we’re not sure either (a MeeGo slate? A Chrome OS netbook?) but we’d be interested to see just how Nokia intends to get in on this growing market.
