Nokia CEO Elop: We’re looking closely at offering a tablet

Nokia has been focused on making mobile phones, but the Finnish company may no longer be able to ignore the popularity of tablets.

CEO Stephen Elop said Nokia is looking at tablets as a way to expand the company’s portfolio, according to a report Monday by the Australian Financial Review.

“We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely,” Elop said according to the report. “We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”

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When asked whether Nokia would go with Windows or Google’s Android operating system for a tablet, Elop declined to say but his comments leaned toward Microsoft’s software.

“When you think about the Lumia 920, running on Windows phone, having a Windows tablet or PC or Xbox is something that will give us the opportunity to have a pretty integrated experience. Our first focus on what we look at is clearly in the Microsoft side,” Elop said. “But we have made no decision.”

Elop’s comments follow a report in late December by the Verge that said Nokia would release its own tablet in early 2013.

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