Nokia has released a “pocket-sized WiFi Tablet”:http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,1522,,00.html?orig=/770.

This strikes me as a clever move on their part. It takes advantage of increacingly available WiFi bandwidth and does so with a device that’s cheaper than a portable PC and many smartphonesn (I’ve seen suggestions of $300 price points), which positions it well in a lot of emerging economies where penetration of said devices is relatively low.

It’s running Linux and appears to accept third party apps, which will no doubt attract a lot of interest from geeks, some of whom might turn out interesting software for it.

It also lets them start to dable in the VoIP market without freaking out mobile carriers too much.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes Skype to release a version for this device.

Now, there are lots of ways they could blow it with this thing. But I think this could be the start of a very interesting strategy.

One thing I know. I want one.

“More on eHome Upgrade”:http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/984/nokia_launches_new