More Sightings of Nokia's Touchscreen Mobile Phone

Nokia's rumoured iPhone competitor was shown on a powerpoint slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference on Monday. The handset, code-named as 'tube' showed the familiar touch-screen user interface and was demo'd with a movie playback.

"It's our first touch device," Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia told InfoWorld. Interfacing with the system is done via touch similar to the iPhone. He said the company has not published the planned date of shipment for Tube.

This is not the first time that Nokia has shown off a touch-screen handset, as the company showed initial prototypes last November to analysts. The handset appeared to be using a touch sensitive screen with haptic feedback and a screen display which does resemble the iPhone interface, if only superficially. It is expected to be launched later this year. The company also added touch screen capabilities to its smartphone OS - the Series 60 platform - at around the same time.

In a research note last November, when news of the new handset emerged, Nomura analyst Richard Windsor warned that Apple claimed to have patented its touchscreen interface. "I think Apple will likely view Nokia as infringing on its user interface patents," said Richard Windsor "But I don't see this being the same scale of the legal battle Nokia has with Qualcomm,"

Taiwan's Innolux, the world's second largest monitor assembler has previously confirmed that it has touch screen display orders from Nokia, with shipments expected to commence shortly. Innolux is an affiliate of Hon Hai, which is an outsourced handset manufacturer for Nokia.

A survey last year found that European consumers preferred Nokia to Apple as a handset brand and there have been reports that sales of the iPhone in Europe have been hampered by the handset's lack of 3G capability. Apple is expected to launch a 3G model within the next couple of months.

On the web: InfoWorld

Posted to the site on 8th April 2008