Nokia is the Platinum Sponsor of the Web 2.0 Summit which kicks off this Wednesday in San Francisco, CA. Nokia has also been widely reported to be developing a WiMax-enabled version of their N800 Internet Tablet with support for Sprint's new "Xohm" network, planned for rollout over the course of 2008. And prices of the aforementioned N800 - Nokia's current Internet Tablet device - have been dropping around the Web over the past few weeks.
Could it be that Nokia's got something up their sleeves for unveiling later this week? A few Internet sources seem to think so.
InformationWeek's Micheal Singer went so far last Friday as to sing that familiar refrain: iPhone killer. "Nokia's 'major product announcement'," Singer wrote, "may include a new Web 2.0-enabled smartphone that could rival Apple's iPhone."
IntoMobile goes one further by pointing to Nokia's own events calendar for the summit. Apparently the Finnish giant will be hosting a party Wed. night, "which will showcase their next generation of Web 2.0 offerings, launched earlier that afternoon."
Hmm. Nokia's been doing all kinds of work on their "Ovi" brand of internet services, trying to directly provide all of the music/blogging/photo/entertainment/etc. Web 2.0 services that your network operator would rather give you themselves. So it makes sense that they'd be sponsoring the Web 2.0 Summit. And, you know, launching some kind of neato Web 2.0 device to kick the summit off. We'll see...
Read more from Information Week on the Web 2.0 Summit and additional Nokia's plans at IntoMobile.
