Nokia would like to scrap ports, add NFC on Windows Phones
updated 03:25 pm EST, Tue January 31, 2012
Nokia designer talks about even more minimalism
Nokia's newly promoted executive design VP, Marko Ahtisaari, has hinted in a interview that he'd like Nokia's phones to go even more minimalist than today. He noted to the Guardian that designs like the Lumia 900 were showing where Nokia was going, where it had dropped the USB door cover to produce a direct port. He could imagine at one point going without any connectors, although the newspaper overreached in presuming this meant definite plans for wireless charging.
He likewise alluded once more to NFC coming to future Windows Phones. It's already in a handful of Nokia devices, including the MeeGo-running N9, but Nokia has to wait for official support in Microsoft's OS. CEO Stephen Elop had already said at CES that Nokia wanted to roll in NFC over time.
NFC is mostly used for wireless payments, but Nokia also uses it for quickly pairing certain Bluetooth headsets and speakers. It can be used to read tags and, at least on Android, to swap data between phones.
Ahtisaari was more future-minded and thought that touchscreens were still in their early phase. At the end of the 19th century, cars were still commanded using tillers like in boats, he said, and it took the turn of the century to settle on the steering wheel cars have today. The current hardware was "in the middle" of the transition.
