While discussing the French Lumia 800 launch with the newspaper Les Echos, Nokia France GM Paul Amsellem drops an interesting quote-- "...in June 2012, we will have a tablet running Windows 8."

Nokia itself is yet to officially confirm the revelation, preferring to instead concentrate on the newly launched Windows Phone handsets. 

Will the Nokia-Microsoft partnership manage to successfully tread in such Apple-dominated tablet territory?

Maybe (Windows 8 is designed for tablet and touchscreen use after all)... but maybe not. DigiTimes says says pure hardware companies (giving the examples of HP, Acer, Asus and Dell) have no chance in a tablet market dominated by content providing heavyweights such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

And what's Nokia if a mobile hardware maker?

Why? The content providers make profit from their devices through digital content sales, not hardware sales-- allowing them to heavily subsidise device prices, if not start giving out tablets out for free. 

Meanwhile Apple is, well, Apple. The iPad rules the market, and is surely there to stay, even if it will get a couple of bruises on the way. 

Moving back to smartphones, Amsellem hopes Nokia will take 22% of the French mobile market-- a region where over 60% of mobile customers still don't use a smartphone. He also compares the Lumia 800 to a BMW 5 Series and says "...we will soon have a full range with a Series 7 and Series 3."

Wonder which car metaphor will describe a Nokia tablet best?

Go Nokia, Microsoft Off To Conquer the Mobile Phone (Les Echos)

Go PC Hardware Players to Phase Out from Tablet Market in 2012 (Digitimes)