Last month Nokia dropped a bit of a bombshell: while the company’s sale to Microsoft of its devices and services division precludes it from releasing a smartphone under its own name for the immediate future, the remaining Nokia crew seized upon one heck of a loophole, allowing them to launch an Android tablet – the Nokia N1. The 2K-res 4:3 tablet sure reminded us enough of slates like the iPad Air 2 or HTC Nexus 9, but the Nokia N1 had one big advantage over those guys: a price tag that came out to the equivalent of just about $250. We heard to expect the N1 to first go up for sale sometime in the first quarter of next year, where its release would get underway in China. But does that mean next week, or closer to the end of March? It sounds like we’re very much talking sooner rather than later, as we get word that sales could start on January 7.
So says a report out of China, and while the date is presented relatively firmly, there’s also mention of sales falling during China’s Spring Festival, which starts this year in mid-February. As a result, it’s less than crystal-clear just when we’ll see this guy hit retail, but the general theme of all this is pointing much more towards the beginning of Q1 than a later date.
Of course, we’re still just discussing sales in China, and given the reaction the N1 received when it was first revealed, we’re sure that Android (and Nokia) fans all around the globe will be curious to get a crack at this hardware, as well. We know that the N1 will come to other markets eventually, but the jury’s still out on when those sales will commence.
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