Nokia sees hope for corporate notebook

NOKIA is finding that it is getting strong interest from corporates for its new Booklet 3G device.

Heikki Norta, head of Nokia corporate strategy, told Reuters that when the product was launched he thought it would be a consumer device, but it turned out that there was huge interest from companies.

Nokia launched its mini-laptop in August, entering a fiercely competitive but fast-growing market, setting the price for the device at $861.

"No one knows yet if a booklet kind of device is the next device that will be used by millions, or hundreds of millions, of people, but right now it looks like, if not for mass market, there is clear demand," Norta added.

Nokia has ordered 100,000 units from Compal and much to everyone's surprise has not had much trouble shifting them.

Basically it is an expensive netbook. It has a tiny, clamshell, laptop-like design with 1GB of RAM, Intel's Z530 1.6GHz Atom CPU, and a 4200RPM 120GB hard drive.

It seems that corporates are hoping to save a bit of cash by not buying full sized laptops. µ