When will the Nokia Tablet be ready for major retailer shelf space?

[Garage Battle]

Forgive me if I havent read this somewhere else, but when is the Nokia Tablet going to show up in major retailer stores? I have seen it at Compusa (where i bought both my 770 & N800), but never came across it at Best Buy or Circuit City.

Reason I even think about this, is my friend brought it to my attention that he had never seen another person with a Nokia tablet. That made me realize that Id never came across a person with a Nokia tablet either. Its a great product, but people just dont know about it.

I take the time to explain it to everyone who asks "oh is that a phone?", but Im sure having the product in major retailers for the holiday would bring it GREAT SUCCESS! Any plans?

[geneven]

When the price dips below $200, I'm going to advise my computer-challenged friends to buy them. For lots of people, $200 is the impulse buy pricepoint. I've never seen anyone besides me with an N800 either.

[dont]

When it (the 810) is sold as an in-car GPS mapping system that also happens to be a great in-car video and music player.

The Internet stuff is there so that when you stop for coffee you can check your email and do a little light browsing.

That is how I would market it anyway - especially after spending $8B on a mapping company.

Unhappily, it looks like Nokia are going to miss this year's Christmas sales. Judging by the flyers I get in my mailbox it looks like a lot of GPS mapping systems will be sold this year for about the same price as an 810. These things do not do all of the extras that the 810 can do.

[hircus]

Unhappily, it looks like Nokia are going to miss this year's Christmas sales. Judging by the flyers I get in my mailbox it looks like a lot of GPS mapping systems will be sold this year for about the same price as an 810. These things do not do all of the extras that the 810 can do.

It will be released just in time (late November) -- whether Nokia can get its marketing act together for the tablet is another question.

Is the tablet being promoted better in Europe? Nokia ads are not that prominent in the States, but when I was living in Britain I used to see Nokia advertisements pretty much before any movie screening.

[aflegg]

Loads of adverts for Nokia phones over here (mostly print/posters, AFAICT). Never seen a non-web advert for the N800, though.

[Garage Battle]

nokia could benefit greatly with just a little viral marketing on facebook or myspace.

[Texrat]

Don't be too sure. Nokia's done viral marketing. But I think the internet is innoculated against it.

[pixelseventy2]

the only offline place I have seen the n800 advertised was an ad in wired, and I suspect a lot of their readers already know about it

[gerbick]

I have never seen advertising for the internet tablets... in any of my travels, in any language. Ever.

If they actually advertise the N810, I'd be surprised.

[Bigga]

Well i've seen the N800 advertised on the ticket barriers at Victoria Station it was in conjunction with BTs new openzone wifi project.

[Faz]

Well i've seen the N800 advertised on the ticket barriers at Victoria Station it was in conjunction with BTs new openzone wifi project.

Cor blimey guv! Really?

Can you elaborate on the ad please. How long ago was this? I guess a photo is out of the question? :rolleyes:

[dkwatts]

When it (the 810) is sold as an in-car GPS mapping system that also happens to be a great in-car video and music player.

The n810 would have an extremely high return rate if mass-marketed as a "gps device that let's you browse the web at your favorite coffee shop".

No doubt, it provides a great web experience, but is the world willing to wait 4 min. for a "gps" device to initialize?

[aflegg]

No doubt, it provides a great web experience, but is the world willing to wait 4 min. for a "gps" device to initialize?

Agreed, however can I ask your source for the 4 minutes to lock on?

[jwhelan]

The N800 is in this weeks Best Buy ad for $299 FYI (kinda high)

[Faz]

The n810 would have an extremely high return rate if mass-marketed as a "gps device that let's you browse the web at your favorite coffee shop".

No doubt, it provides a great web experience, but is the world willing to wait 4 min. for a "gps" device to initialize?

Most GPS devices do tend to take longer than usual to lock onto 4+ satellites under any of the following scenarios: a) they are switched back on at a significant distance from their previous locked location, b) it has been left off for some time or c) the unit is not completely stationary while it's trying to establish a lock. Of course any combination of these will make things even worse.

In all the above cases a significant number of more calculations are required to re-establish the lock. I wonder if any of these were a factor with previous tests? If not, then I really hope this is a known issue and it will be ironed out by the final release.

I pre-ordered the N810 yesterday, largely because of the GPS. Should this not function as "reasonably" expected I will promptly return it for a full refund as it will not be "fit for purpose" and hold on to my N800.

[pixelseventy2]

Agreed, however can I ask your source for the 4 minutes to lock on?

I assume he's referring to the power-on time. I imagine most people using these primarily for gps would fully power them off, rather than leaving them on as we would.

[TA-t3]

For a cold-start (that is, a GPS without any existing, accurate satellite orbital parameters in its little brain) it will _have_ to wait a bit until it can start locking onto the satellites. This is because the initial data it needs are only transmitted every 30 seconds, so after first searching for, and finding a satellite to lock on to, it has to wait a while (depending on where in the cycle it locks on). Only after that can it start making better guesses and connect to multiple satellites, then download the accurate per-satellite parameters, and _then_ you're up and running! :)

The next time it's easier (unless you're suffering for the cases Faz describes) because it's got enough data to be ahead of the game. A fix for this would be if the GPS could get pre-loaded with orbital data by a quick hookup to the Internet via the N810's BT or wi-fi connection.

[Milhouse]

A fix for this would be if the GPS could get pre-loaded with orbital data by a quick hookup to the Internet via the N810's BT or wi-fi connection.

I guess this would be an ideal use for something like Plazes or geoclue - if the GPS coordinates of the WiFi access point are known it should help improve the GPS lock time (similar to AGPS?) If I'm at home and connected to my WiFi, when I leave home I bet the GPS will take a while to lock on as it's been out of sight of a satellite for many hours while indoors, but what it should do is use the GPS coordinates of the last known WiFi connection as a starting point (ie. home).

[TA-t3]

It should actually be able to connect almost immediately in the situation you describe, unless you moved a fair distance since the last time you had lock. The orbital parameters it collected the last time are still valid after several hours, or even days unless the satellites drift too much out of the orbits that can be calculated from those parameters. As long as you're not moving away too far. Or you're in motion.

How good the GPS receiver works in that situation seems to be depending on the device itself, there's a lot of variation. I'm not sure why, but if the unit's internal clock is poor then that would have a negative effect. For these troubled devices I would imagine all external help (e.g. wi-fi location, accurate time) would be of help for a quicker lock.

Something occured to me.. does units with built-in GPS chips still have an internal clock in the GPS receiver itself? Or is it using the unit's clock? (A GPS will synch its clock to the GPS system when it gets the chance, but it needs a fairly accurate clock for the in-between lock situations.) While experimenting with rdate I found that the N800 system clock seems to be extremely precise, it hardly drifts at all compared to a desktop PC's clock. I mean, half of a tenth of a second after a week..

[hircus]

How good the GPS receiver works in that situation seems to be depending on the device itself, there's a lot of variation. I'm not sure why, but if the unit's internal clock is poor then that would have a negative effect. For these troubled devices I would imagine all external help (e.g. wi-fi location, accurate time) would be of help for a quicker lock.

GPS works by triangulation: each satellite transmits its position and timestamp, and the unit works out by the difference in timing how far it is from each satellite, and thus its position. Having a skewed clock makes things more difficult because you need to calculate the amount of clock drift that would give you a consistent reading.

Speaking of GPS, would the N810 be able to use the timing info to automatically adjust its internal clock? From experience, the 770 and N800 do not have NTP clients, and it's impossible out-of-the-box to keep the clock accurate to less than a minute.

[TA-t3]

There's no ntp, but there's ntpdate and rdate, both of which can accurately set the N800 clock (I provide rdate for OS2007, didn't build one for OS2006. Don't know if ntpdate is available also for OS2006). And as the clock in my N800 seems to be keep time amazingly well I don't feel the need for ntp. As for the N810 and its GPS, I'm as curious as you.

[chatterbox]

While experimenting with rdate I found that the N800 system clock seems to be extremely precise, it hardly drifts at all compared to a desktop PC's clock. I mean, half of a tenth of a second after a week..
I found the N800 clock to be pretty accurate as well, but haven't tested with any clock syncing apps or anything. Just a simple comparison. As opposed to my 770, where the clock would lose up to 15 minutes within a week. It was terribly inaccurate.

[hircus]

And as the clock in my N800 seems to be keep time amazingly well I don't feel the need for ntp.

That's my experience as well -- but it's handy for those times when I forget to recharge the device and the battery completely died.

[TA-t3]

For those times you need just ntpdate or rdate! ;)
(You want ntp (the daemon) only on systems which tend to drift.. from other postings it sounds like the 770 could have some need for it.)

[JeffElkins]

When it (the 810) is sold as an in-car GPS mapping system that also happens to be a great in-car video and music player.

I don't think so. You can get much nicer in-car GPS systems for well under the $600 that the N810 costs (once you pay the extra bucks for GPS software.)

[munky261]

yeah but all they do is gps , ill be damned if im going to pay that kind of money just for a gps unit