Did Nokia Just Hint at a Windows Tablet?

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Nokia may have just announced a massive quarterly loss due to a precipitous decline in handset sales, but it remains confident of “establishing a beachhead in this war of ecosystems.” The Finnish company is now banking on its Windows Phone lineup to turn things around. But are its plans only limited to the smartphone market, or is it also considering venturing into the increasingly crowded media tablet market?

Late last year, the head of Nokia France, Paul Amsellem, supposedly confirmed the existence of a Nokia-branded Windows 8 tablet in an interview with French paper  Les Échos, only for the company to quickly deny the report. But if Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s comments during the  company’s recent earnings call are anything to go by, Paul Amsellem’s may not have been quoted out of context, after all.

“The broader digital experience is coming into focus,” Elop said with in response to a question about Windows Phone’s competitiveness against iOS and Android devices. “If you look at the overall Microsoft strategy, you see the consistency of user experience… across PCs, tablets and phones. And for the operators, I suspect they see an opportunity to participate in a larger play when a consumer walks through their doors.”

If anything, this is only a hint. But with most smartphone vendors dabbling in tablets these days, Nokia might find it difficult to simply observe their tussle from the sidelines. What’s more, the company has once previously succumbed to the urge of joining in the fun. It launched a netbook called the Booklet 3G back when such mini laptops were still a rage.

Further, it also has some experience with tablets, having sold a number of so-called Internet tablets before the advent of the iPad. To be fair, though, that experience hardly counts now, as back then it was possible to market anything with a display size in excess of 4-inches as a tablet