Microsoft failed to meet the sales expectations on its Surface tablets running on the Windows RT operating system. Industry analysts said it would be hard to imagine Nokia coping better than Microsoft. Yet sources told American technology news and media network "The Verge" said that the handset maker from Finland would roll out a tablet powered by Windows RT next month.
Nokia's venture in the tablet industry would make sense considering that the market for tablets is currently growing faster than the smartphone market. The company's decision to receive billions from Microsoft has been more costly than profitable. The two companies recently had a deal wherein Nokia would support Windows as its mobile operating system in exchange for investment.
Analysts projected Nokia's revenue to slide by 19% in 2013. Supporting Windows RT might prove to be another mistake for the Finnish company. Research firm International Data Corporation said only 0.4% or 200,000 of the total 50 million tablets sold globally during the first quarter of 2013 were powered on Windows RT.
In this year's second quarter, Nokia was able to sell only 53.7 million handsets. It has been reducing costs and selling off assets to secure the company from its current financial disposition. Nokia's net cash reserves slumped to EUR4.1 billion from last quarter's EUR4.5 billion. With the said plan, Nokia was said to have endangered itself by following Microsoft on the road to nowhere.
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