Nokia offers Tube as iPhone rival, dismisses Apple
updated 10:05 am EDT, Tue April 8, 2008
Nokia Tube Early Info
Nokia has given its touchscreen phone an early name and demonstration, the company has revealed at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference. The handset maker at the Redwood City-based event said its first touch device is internally known as the Tube and is said to be visually similar to the iPhone. However, the Finnish handset is already known to include features that its Apple competitor lacks, including the ability to directly upload videos as well as support for Java-based apps.
Neither additional features nor a release date have been discussed, though Nokia has demonstrated the Tube playing Shrek the Third and last year showcased a likely related concept that includes iPhone-like photo navigation and an accelerometer that auto-rotates the image depending on the phone's relative position to the user.
At the conference, Forum Nokia VP Tom Libretto directly compared the Tube to the iPhone and explained that both features as well as sheer market influence would help Nokia outmuscle Apple. The latter has shipped 4 million iPhones as of January but is dwarfed by Nokia's sales, which saw 133.4 million phones shipped just in the holiday quarter alone. Apple is simply unable to match that production scale, according to the executive.
"We've done that [iPhone level of volume] since we've had dinner on Friday," Libretto says.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Apples v. Oranges
Sure, Nokia does big phone business, and 4 million units sold is a drop in the bucket for them. But they have hundreds of phones in their product line in just about every market in the world. Apple has one phone model, and it isn't in half the markets yet that count (Japan, China, Latin America).
Let's see how confident Nokia will be once Apple completes it's world wide rollout, and offers a few other models, say, an iPhone nano/mini/shuffle, (you get the point).