Greene on MIDs and Tablets.

Jonathan Greene has written a nice piece on the Nokia Internet Tablets today. He makes some comparisons with Intel MIDs which is well worth reading and I agree with most of it.

• Nokia’s vision for the Internet tablet is good.
• The N810 is more pocketable than most MIDs
• Adding horsepower is not the answer to a positive user experience
• “the multi-part strategy in the Nokia Internet Tablet platform is very compelling for those seeking advanced connectivity, entertainment and productivity”

This is not the whole equation of course, but the points are important ones.

For example, in the really high-volume market for mobile communications I don’t think the customers will want a single, large device like the SE Xperia, Nokia e90 or HTC Advantage. People want one small phone with a camera, ‘texting’, music features and possibly GPS-related features. They might want to get some cool Internet-capable apps on their screens too and that will probably be about it for the next 3 years.

Some of these people will want video and Internet though and this is where the two-device strategy comes into play. Just like some people carry a reading book, PMP or Walkman, this subset will be looking for a second device that gives them the video and Internet.

It looks like Nokia will be a big player in this multi-part strategy and as I’ve said before, I think ARM-based platforms could gain a lot of early wins but as time goes on and as the market matures into mainstream, the x86-based devices will be there too. The software, size and battery life gap will close because all parties understand that these are important issues to solve. We’ll see some excellent devices from both sides.

As customers, I think we’re always going to be winners because those 4 points above seem to be understood by most players now and to us, it really doesn’t matter what’s under the hood as long as it works to our expectations.