Nokia Phone/tablet Strategy Leak Alleges Windows 8 Slates And Vanjoki "Backup"

Details on Nokia's alleged phone and tablet strategy for 2012 and 2013 have emerged, suggesting that the company is indeed looking to Windows 8 for its slates and that Maemo 6 will be rolled out for one final hurrah before being effectively dropped. Arch insider Eldar Murtazin has spilt the beans, claiming that Nokia is looking to release 5-7 mid-to-high end Symbian^3 handsets in 2012, along with a single tablet.

More tablets will follow on with Windows 8 in 2013, though Maemo 6/MeeGo fans shouldn't expect anything to their satisfaction. Although we've heard that there will be one Maemo 6 "Harmattan" handset released sometime this year, the platform is described as a "dead horse" with Nokia only expecting 92,000 units to sell to fans and intending to axe development afterwards.

The high-end will of course be catered for with Windows Phone, while the low- and mid-tiers will make do with S30, S40 Lite, S40 and S60 in the sub-€250 ($372) segment. Nokia is supposedly aiming for 21-percent of the worldwide smartphone market share in 2011, and 27-percent of the mobile phone market overall; recent figures from IDC suggested the company had dropped to 29.2-percent overall in Q1 2011.

Somewhat bizarrely, Murtazin also suggests that, if Microsoft fails to buy the mobile phone company in two years time, Nokia's "backup strategy" is to bring Anssi Vanjoki back on as CEO in 2013 and adopt Android as the company's second platform. Longtime Nokia smartphone chief Vanjoki quitthe company on the eve of Nokia World 2010 having been overlooked for CEO, with ex-Microsoft exec Stephen Elop selected instead.

We likely won't find out if any of this is entirely true, but one thing is for sure: amid falling market share, Nokia needs to make a significant splash with its first Windows Phone devices.