Gary Cutlack - 

Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop has said the company is looking to “broaden its portfolio” in the future, with the long anticipated move into tablets perhaps about to happen. Way after everyone in the world has already bought one and then upgraded it to a better one six months later, but still.

The words come via press interviews given by Elop in Australia, who appears to suggest we’ll also see newer, smaller smartphones, as Nokia looks to widen its budget ranges. While no decision has been made yet, so he says, Elop said: “It is the case that in the months and years ahead, you will see us broaden out the portfolio, which means pushing to lower and lower price points, in some cases smaller form factors and so forth.”

Elop expanded on the tablet side of things by saying: “We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely. 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.”

So if Surface sales figures are what determine whether Nokia makes a tablet or not, it almost certainly won’t bother. In terms of Android, Elop said his “first focus” for tablet hardware would be “clearly in the Microsoft side,” before stressing once again that no decision has been made and that a Nokia-made Android tablet is perhaps a distant possibility. [Financial Review via Ars]