Earlier this year Nokia design chief Marko Ahtisaari teased his company's plans for an upcoming tablet, saying that he's spent a third of his time working on a new slate for Nokia. Now another Nokia employee is in the news talking tablets as well as other new devices that are in the works at the Finnish firm. Speaking to the Financial Times, Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila has said that his company will release a range of tablets and "hybrid" smart devices to help it better compete in the mobile marketplace. "Tablets are an important one, so that is being looked into, and there will be different hybrids, different form factors [handset designs] in the future," Ollila said. The exec didn't offer any other details on these new products.

While we don't yet know exactly what Nokia has up its sleeve for a tablet, previous rumors have suggested that the company is cooking up a Windows 8-powered slate, a move that'd make sense considering how buddy-buddy Nokia and Microsoft have been. It's not yet clear exactly when we could see a Nokia tablet debut, but considering the praise that Nokia has received for the design of devices like the Lumia 900, it should be interesting to see what it does a tablet. More as we get it.

Via The Verge, Financial Times