Nokia's N1 Android Tablet Is Actually a Foxconn Tablet 109
sfcrazy writes:
"Nokia surprised everyone when it announced the N1 Android tablet during the Slush conference in Finland, today. This story has a twist, though: the N1 is not a Nokia device. Nokia doesn't have a device unit anymore: it sold its Devices and Services business to Microsoft in 2013. The N1 is made by Taiwanese contract manufacturing company Foxconn, which also manufactures the iPhone and the iPad.
But Nokia's relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple's. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn. In the case of N1, Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution, and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, the Z Launcher software layer, and the IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.
But Nokia's relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple's. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn. In the case of N1, Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution, and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, the Z Launcher software layer, and the IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.
Re:Wait a second, this is very interesting. (Score:4, Informative)
Nope, only the phone division of Nokia was sold to Microsoft... this product is by one of the other divisions of Nokia not part of Microsoft.
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Nope, only the phone division of Nokia was sold to Microsoft... this product is by one of the other divisions of Nokia not part of Microsoft.
There are no "other" divisions of Nokia. All of the employees who worked in every other division is now a Microsoft employee.
All that remains at Nokia is a skeleton of upper management (and not even that really, most of those work for Microsoft now too. Including Nokia's CEO).
At least until they re-invent themselves Nokia is basically a patent and intellectual property troll and a brand name. They have sold their name to Foxconn for use on it's own product.
Re:Wait a second, this is very interesting. (Score:4, Informative)
You're mistaken... the independent Nokia still has a mapping, network equipment and devices business.
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Ummm, nope?
Nokia is actually making profits again, market cap is 25Billion, and has some 50000 employees. Now there is a thin layer of upper management for you :-D
Nokia wasn't just a phone company you know?
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market cap is 25Billion, and has some 50000 employees.
Nokia wasn't just a phone company you know?
Wow! I had no idea the rubber boot business was so lucrative.
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Wow! I had no idea the rubber boot business was so lucrative.
The world will always be full of politicians and bureaucrats so there will always be a need for hip waders.
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All that remains at Nokia is a skeleton of upper management
Nokia is now a network solutions company, and they are doing pretty well [slashdot.org].
(and not even that really, most of those work for Microsoft now too. Including Nokia's CEO).
Nokia's current CEO Rajeev Suri [wikipedia.org] certainly does not work for Microsoft.
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Nokia also manufactures hardware for operating cell phone towers. That was not sold to Microsoft.
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Nope. Nokia was a very diverse company and not just a phone maker. Nokia Networks morphed into Nokia Siemens Networks but it is still a Nokia subsidiary, and there is still Nokia Research as far as I know, and there are other small divisions.
Re:Wait a second, this is very interesting. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have a look at the pictures, you can see that it has more than a similarity to the iPad mini than just "rounded corners". It basically looks identical except for the Apple Logo and home button.
What else is distinctive about an iPad apart from those two things? Really, all tablets look the same. They're basically just a rectangular touch-screen. About the only variations possible in their hardware are colour, size, and buttons - and some utilitarian designs as to which ports are located where, which are hardly distinctive.
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What else is distinctive about an iPad apart from those two things? Really, all tablets look the same. They're basically just a rectangular touch-screen. About the only variations possible in their hardware are colour, size, and buttons - and some utilitarian designs as to which ports are located where, which are hardly distinctive.
Sure... except that this one has exactly the same colour (although Apple has three colours and they have only copied two of them), exactly the same size, exactly the same buttons in exactly the same locations, ports in exactly the same location except that Apple has two rows in their speaker grill and this has three rows of holes and it has USB-Type C instead of Lightning (which are also visually indistinguishable from each other).
The design is so close one has to wonder if they are actually using the same
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The design is so close one has to wonder if they are actually using the same machinery for some of the components between this tablet and the iPad. They really are that similar.
Foxconn makes the Apple iDevices, and China is known worldwide for its copying. Foxconn actually has some real engineers that can design things. So they just went ahead and copied the overall design, making only those changes which were necessary. They won't be using any of the same components, but the devices might well be produced on lines formerly used for Apple equipment.
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The design is so close one has to wonder if they are actually using the same machinery for some of the components between this tablet and the iPad. They really are that similar.
The chassis is completely different, just look at them here [staticflickr.com]. What components would they have used the same tooling for? I can't see any, obviously there are a lot of similarities but if you actually look at them there isn't anything that is the same.
exactly the same buttons in exactly the same locations
Buttons look pretty different [staticflickr.com] actually. But before the iPad Mini came along the Nexus 7 had its volume keys and data cable port in the same spot, Apple put them in the same place on the iPad Mini because it's the logical place for them, not because they were cop
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Right, those 'off the shelf' components, which are made by their suppliers *to specifications* provided by Apple, in many cases utilizing Apple's patented designs.
Go ahead and try to find an 'off the shelf' A8 SOC and use it to put together your own device.
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What else is distinctive about an iPad apart from those two things?
On current iterations, the polished, chamfer edge on the bezel...but this Nokia tablet doesn't have that, actually the bevel on the edge is completely different.
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Now with this piece of news, it does seem like Foxconn have ripped off the iPad mini design (given their detailed knowledge of the manufacturing process)
No, if you read the article you'll see that Nokia is responsible for the design and the Z Launcher.
and are using the "Nokia" (Microsoft) brand to sell it, given that Microsoft have a cross-licensing deal with Apple that lets Microsoft and Apple rip each other off as much as they like.
No, Microsoft has nothing to do with this.
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it does seem like Foxconn have ripped off the iPad mini design
actually it says this is a Nokia design:
Nokia is responsible for the industrial design [arstechnica.com]
and are using the "Nokia" (Microsoft) brand
wrong, from the summary:
This story has a twist, though: the N1 is not a Nokia device. Nokia doesn't have a device unit anymore: it sold its Devices and Services business to Microsoft in 2013.
given that Microsoft have a cross-licensing deal with Apple that lets Microsoft and Apple rip each other off as much as they like.
but Microsoft has nothing to do with this, Nokia is not owned by Microsoft, they just sold one of their divisions (one that is not involved with this device at all) to Microsoft.
how is parent modded "informative" it is completely w
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it's a Nokia brand name, not Microsoft, nor Microsoft owned Nokia.
you see, Microsoft didn't buy the rights to the name Nokia for everything. Nokia just can't make _phones_ for a few years using the Nokia brand, they can make devices though. even though the part that MS bought included Devices and Smart devices(the microsoft infested shit, which had at that point barely any original r&d going into it that wasn't from microsoft).
this can all be very confusing and may raise many questions about why microso
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They already had Nokia convinced to buy the MS phone environment for some phones whether it was good or not. All MS had to do was provide enough funding to make the MS phone software more viable and they probably could have got it into a lot of people's hands, but they got greedy, wanted
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I think Microsoft bought it because they thought they would get the cellphone market share of Nokia with the deal plus any patents Nokia had. The patents were the main deal here. The problem is Nokia market share collapsed after Elop and his burning platforms memo. No one wanted Windows in their cellphone.
A fox like Basil? (Score:2)
It's an Intel Atom (Score:3)
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Shared code between desktop and Android apps (Score:2)
That's one of the chief advantages of using a VM to execute your bytecode.
Provided that an app's model [wikipedia.org] is written in a language that has been ported to that VM. An app can ideally be split into a "model", the part that interacts with data, and a "view", the part that performs input and output. Versions of an app for multiple platforms can either translate the model line-by-line in each platform's preferred language or share the model and only rewrite the view. An advantage of the latter approach is that human errors in manual translation are minimized, and fixes to the model on
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About software compatibility, they have a proprietary software, called houdini IIRC, that recompiles (I think) ARM native code to intel on the fly. I never noticed any differences with apps and games
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Why would anyone want to boot Windows 8.anything is beyond me.
To run applications that haven't been ported to Android perhaps? Or to split the screen and show an app on each half without being limited to those few apps that use the Samsung Mobile SDK to opt into multi-window mode?
Re:It's an Intel Atom (Score:5, Funny)
It's a quad-core Atom,
Like Helium-4?
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why would you not build fat binaries of your ndk apps?
the code is most likely going to be 2-4% of the size of the application(provided that it has any images, textures, models or such), so building it in so called fat mode to include both the x86 and arm builds is a pretty easy choice. and yes it's totally very easy and I reckon the amount of apps that include arm assembly can be counted with one hand.
*yes I'm aware that a bunch of devs haven't done it that way, but I have not heard any complaints about stu
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why would you not build fat binaries of your ndk apps?
Because your code pulled in with the NDK contains asm
Apps that contain ARM asm (Score:2)
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why would you not build fat binaries of your ndk apps?
Because either A. you don't already own an x86 tablet on which to test the app thoroughly, or B. you want to price-discriminate against owners of x86 devices.
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How much longer will Foxconn need Apple? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the problem with outsourcing manufacturing and keeping the "brand". Eventually, if they're good, the outsourcing company takes over. It's about time for this to happen to Apple. The hardware is approaching maturity. The last rev of the iPhone was only a minor change over the previous one, and the technology was comparable to HTC's product of two years ago.
Re:How much longer will Foxconn need Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
It can't happen to Apple because there's nothing special about the hardware of ipads. The secret sauce is iOS and the itunes ecosystem.
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And you know.. the hardware. Seeing as their CPUs continually run circles around everyone and are even giving Intel a run for their money. The nvidia K1 in the Nexus9 (dual core 64bit version) looks promising but they had to clock it at 2.3Ghz and still lost to Apple at 1.5ghz.
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Depends what you're running on it. If you run a minimal OS with limited options on a processor or a more complex OS will make a difference. That and Android has to run on any phone, so efficiëncy is probably lost there too.
No it doesn't have anything to do with that. Apple's CPUs are just better. A lot better.
Even basic stuff like copying memory from one location in the CPU to another location is drastically faster on an iOS processor. The latest iPad Air is as fast as a low end Intel x86 chip... and the iPad chip does it with *far* less battery drain than the intel one.
This tablet has a low end x86 chip, which means it will be faster than any ARM processor money can buy... except for Apple's ARM processors.
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You don't need a whole lot of CPU to check Facebook while listening to Pandora, or watch cat videos on Youtube.
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Even basic stuff like copying memory from one location in the CPU to another location is drastically faster on an iOS processor.
That would not mean anything about the CPU. Copying memory is limited by memory speed. Nice that they have fast memory though. Maybe the other tablets need to use faster memory chips too.
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Not really. Apple hardware isn't all that impressive - single core specs show the A8 isn't as fast as say a 2.5GHz Snapdragon (32-bit mode).
However, the secret sauce of iOS IS what is important as it's more efficient, letting a relati
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Of course, a big part of it is Apple is able to tweak the software to their needs and spend time doing so. Samsung doesn't have that luxury when they release more than 1 new smartphone a week (56 so far in 2014 alone!) and 1 new tablet every two weeks [arstechnica.com]. Or LG, which released 41 since the start of the year. Versus Apple's 6 or so (4 of which were just minor tweaks of the base model)..
Excuse me, but is anyone holding a gun to either Samsung or LG's proverbial heads, forcing them to throw design after design at the wall to see what sticks? It's like every single prototype that some engineer slaps together, the marketing guys steal right off the bench and put into full production. What maroons!
In fact, in the face of their 60% drop in profits, Samsung just announced [dailymail.co.uk] they are reigning-in their insane new-model-creation rate, and focusing on "quality" over "quantity".
All I have to say to
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Apple is not really a technology brand these days, more a fashion brand.
(On a side note, did you see all the hiring of people related to the fashion industry??)
Compare the situation to this:
Many manufacturers in the world can produce handbags. Many manufacturer copy handbag designs.
But still brands like Gucci and Louis Vutton can demand a premium price.
Apple is in the same league: as long as the brand remains premium, it does not matter what the output is or for that matter what their quality is.
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Apple is not really a technology brand these days
lolwut?
Apple is in the same league: as long as the brand remains premium, it does not matter what the output is or for that matter what their quality is.
Too bad for your theory that Apple remains the top performer [dailymail.co.uk] and the tops in quality [pocket-lint.com] and customer satisfaction [imore.com].
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Maybe I phrased it wrong. What I mean is: Apple is not really relying on best specs, best technology anymore.
Just like Gucci doesn't have to come with totally new bag all the time. And that makes sense as they won't be able to be the best all the time.
Just as long as they are perceived to be the best by their loyal fanbase, they will do well. That's also why a smart watch (very much a fashion item) is so important to the lineup. Or white headbuds. It's all to build brand. It doesn't have to be the best, jus
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Maybe I phrased it wrong. What I mean is: Apple is not really relying on best specs, best technology anymore. Just like Gucci doesn't have to come with totally new bag all the time. And that makes sense as they won't be able to be the best all the time.
Just as long as they are perceived to be the best by their loyal fanbase, they will do well. That's also why a smart watch (very much a fashion item) is so important to the lineup. Or white headbuds. It's all to build brand. It doesn't have to be the best, just perceived to be.
First off, thank you for your considered response; that's getting pretty rare around here... ;-)
Actually, Apple is almost never the "first" to employ a new technology or adopt a new standard. They actually shy away a bit from the "bleeding edge" (while still maintaining a cachet of "innovative" and "ahead of the curve").
What they are masters at is waiting until a technology/standard/product niche is getting popular (e.g., WiFi, Music Players, Small-form-factor Desktops, Netbooks, Smartphones) and then "
It's an Intel cpu (Score:2)
I really don't want a power hungry Intel CPU on a tablet, no matter how many benchmarks are faked to make it seem as fast and as low power as an equivalent Arm.
Most android apps will run without issues, that shouldn't be a problem anymore as there have been some Intel tablets out there for several months (I've seen some Asus in bargain bins at the Cora supermarket chain).
Still, the only advantage is if someone manages to run Linux on it. Might make up for the extra heat and lower battery life, to be able to
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Well yeah, it's a Z3580 Anniedale with a PowerVR GPU.
Some Atoms come with Intel HD graphics. This ain't one of them.
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Still, the only advantage is if someone manages to run Linux on it.
Why? If anything running a Linux distro other than Android will make it less useful.
For you maybe but for people like me this is just what I would want Linux with a touch screen. As is now I don't game much other than seduku on my tablet but constantly find my self needing to do something I could easily on desktop Linux and don't get me started on the horrible mobile browsers and mobile websites that keep redirecting from desktop to mobile no matter what you do.
Plus this is somewhere that a desktop environment like unity would shine unlike a more conventional desktop.
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Plus this is somewhere that a desktop environment like unity would shine unlike a more conventional desktop.
Unity is a conventional desktop, not a mobile UI.
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For you maybe but for people like me this is just what I would want Linux with a touch screen. As is now I don't game much other than seduku on my tablet but constantly find my self needing to do something I could easily on desktop Linux
Like what? What is it you can't do on Android x86 that you can do on some other unspecified Linux distro?
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If anything running a Linux distro other than Android will make it less useful.
Quite the opposite. Running a fully fledged linux, with either KDE plasma netbook or unity, and having access to full desktop browsers and normal linux tools, would be a great advantage. I already have android phones and tablets, but often need to use my linux netbook for some functionality that isn't supported in android.
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Quite the opposite. Running a fully fledged linux, with either KDE plasma netbook or unity, and having access to full desktop browsers and normal linux tools, would be a great advantage.
For what though? You can compile and install pretty much any Linux tool you want on Android x86 because it's just Linux.
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Still, the only advantage is if someone manages to run Linux on it. Might make up for the extra heat and lower battery life, to be able to run full featured Linux on it.
Um, you know Android is Linux, right? There's not much special about the Linux kernel in Android, just a few tweaks to the stock kernel to make it suitable to the environement on which it runs.
Almost all the Android special sauce is the user space, so the main difference between an Android system and a regular Linux distribution is what happens when PID 1 is executed. Change init, and you change the system entirely.
Run a debian [debian.org] chroot under Android if you want a regular looking Linux. Install a terminal app
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Tired of big brands selling someone else's product (Score:1)
Many phone and tablet sellers don't even design them anymore.
I just don't know what Nokia is doing anymore. (Score:5, Interesting)
To make matters worst, they thought they "won" when they released the N97 and just planned to make reversions off that thing. Sure it was good, but they just never paid attention to Google. Got laid off about 6 months after that.
So now that the non-compete clause is almost over they are trying again? I still think Stephen Elop was a Trojan horse. It doesn't help maters how he and his cronies got a sweet deal after the merger.
I know Nokia isn't "just a phone company". They have multiple divisions and a large part of Finland economy. But to just come out with an Android tablet, branded launcher all relying on Foxcom's support and build quality? I am not saying I know much about Foxcom, but it still feels kind of a big gamble right after you get burned badly from a market you dominated. What the hell are they thinking?
Re:I just don't know what Nokia is doing anymore. (Score:5, Funny)
Your comment isn't in Finnish and consequently doesn't matter. Vituttaako?
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nokia (Score:1)
btw. Jolla launches Tablet with sailfishos 2.0 (Score:2)
Commemorative Edition Tablets (Score:2)
For a little extra money you can by a commemorative edition tablet. Shaped like a toombstone each one has the engraved signature of a different Foxconn factory line worker. This is not just a tablet, it's an investment. Like a piece of art it is valuable only after the artist has died these tablets are sure to be worth more after the employee has jumped out the window.