Nokia's touch-screen "Tube" gets a name, not much else

Tue Apr 8, 2008 11:51AM EDT

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The Finnish phone giant is making a splash with word of a touch-screen handset to take on the iPhone, but for now, all we have is a name—the "Tube"—and a single PowerPoint slide. Are we talking vaporware here?

Nokia's been known for trotting out high-minded "concepts" like its green "Remade" phone and the bendable, twistable "Morph," and now the "Tube"—an upcoming phone that Nokia clearly believes will eat the iPhone for lunch.

But for now, Nokia isn't letting journalists take the Tube for a test drive—and indeed, the phone maker doesn't even appear to have a physical phone to show us.

Instead, the Tube appeared in a single slide during a recent presentation in Redwood City, California, according to InfoWorld. Nokia execs called the Tube "our first touch device" and promised that it would come with features like Java support and the ability to upload photos.

Beyond that, details on the Tube are pretty much non-existent, and of course, there's no word on price or release date.

Nokia touch-screen aspirations are no secret; it showed off its plans for a touch UI (pictured above) last fall, and the "Morph" phone boasts plenty of cool-looking (if purely conceptual) touch-enabled features.

I've no doubt that Nokia will eventually come out with a touch-screen handset to rival the iPhone, but c'mon—it takes more than a cool name and a PowerPoint slide, folks. Show me an actual phone, some specs, and a release date, and then we'll talk.

Related:
Nokia readies iPhone response [InfoWorld, via Yahoo! News]

Comments on Nokia's touch-screen "Tube" gets a name, not much else

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  • 1 Posted by jonjon19752001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    Nokia Tube??? what a cheesy name for this new touch screen for Nokia.

  • 2 Posted by miggy_san45 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    you konow that the name is only temporary, right? that is just the codename, not the actual name of the product.

  • 3 Posted by jameslongstrider on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    They might be hoping to steal some name recognition, Calling it simply tube, and it being a touch phone that can play videos they'll try to play off the name similarity of youtube. Standard marketing procedure just like all the 3rd party mp3 players that have an "i" in their name to make money off of apple fame. Unfortunately for Nokia, they're a little late if this IS only a concept still, since most major phone companies have some kind of wanna-be iPhone killer out or in developement. I'll need to have some snazzy features to compete, IF it gets released.

  • 4 Posted by tomytenic on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    Interesting comparisons. Well said. Nokia N95 8GB really wins me over! cell phone accessories Motorola keypads and Samsung covers But I have to say something about iPhone. I think when iPhone was created, it aims to change the way 3G technology is done. Therefore it doesn’t include 3G because it uses another technology to replace it. So I think you can’t really claim it doesn’t have 3G features. It is in a different form.

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