Nokia's N810 makes first appearance, drops jaws
We're still waiting for the press release, but that's Nokia N810 Internet Tablet in the fo' realz. Yeah, sexy is an understatement. We peeped this model in a spyshot back in July and appears to be the same lovely recently revealed by the FCC.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff to three months of drip-feed leaks: Engadget ran the first spyshot of what looked like an N800 successor back in July, the FCC filing confirmed the hardware existed, and now the device has surfaced publicly on the same day Gizmodo reports the official N810 announcement — with Nokia's own press release still pending. The leak-to-FCC-to-launch sequence is textbook for Nokia's tablet line, but the timing matters: it lands alongside Nokia demonstrating its new S60 Touch Interface at the Symbian Smartphone Show and shipping the N95 8GB within the same week.
First-order effects
- Nokia's Internet Tablet line gets its successor hardware confirmed ahead of formal launch, giving early adopters and reviewers a concrete device to evaluate while the N800 remains the current model.
Second-order effects
- The N810's confirmed Bluetooth connectivity to cellphones positions the tablet as a companion screen rather than a phone replacement — pressuring rivals like Apple's iPod touch and other Wi-Fi handhelds on the 'internet device without a carrier contract' pitch.
Third-order effects
- If Nokia keeps pairing Maemo-based Linux tablets with its phone lineup, the structural question becomes whether dedicated internet devices survive as a category or get absorbed into smartphones as touch interfaces like S60 mature.
The trend: Handheld computing is splitting into two tracks in late 2007 — carrier-bound smartphones adding touchscreens, and contract-free Linux tablets like Nokia's N810 betting that Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth tethering is enough.