Following on from the news Nokia may have canceled a late September event in New York, we’ve now received official confirmation it’s set to hold an event on October 22. The gossip surrounding the canceled September get-together included talk a late October replacement was being considered, with one source saying it would take place the week beginning October 21.
The invitation shows a desert scene with, weirdly, skiers on the dunes, and has three hashtags in the center. Neither #blazing nor #stories mean much at this stage, but #innovationreinvented will sound familiar to long-term Nokia fans, as it used the very similar #zoomreinvented hashtag on its promo material when it introduced the Lumia 1020.
Aside from the date alteration, we’d also heard the location would be changed from New York. While London has been favored by Nokia in the past, we wondered if it would choose Finland due to this being one of the last major mobile announcements the firm will make, but it may have chosen Abu Dhabi instead. Apart from the hint dropped by the desert on the invitation, a tweet from @evleaks said, “Nokia is hosting an event on October 22, I heard Middle East, possibly Abu Dhabi.” This has been subsequently confirmed by Nokia, and details are in the update below.
So, what is the innovative product Nokia has to show us on October 22? There’s an excellent chance it’s the Lumia 1520, it’s first attempt at a smartphone/tablet hybrid, and at the moment, the only example of the genre we know something about to run Windows Phone 8. Leaks have shown it to be a real powerhouse, with a 6-inch 1080p display and a quad-core processor, both of which are made possible by the addition of the Windows Phone GDR3 update. The Lumia 1520 may also be joined by a Nokia tablet running Windows RT at the event.
We’ll bring you all the exciting news from the event as it happens.
Updated on 09/24/2013 by Andy: Nokia has confirmed the October 22 event will take place in Abu Dhabi in another tweet, this time accompanied by a picture of someone parasailing, and the hashtags Closer, Way Forward, and Innovation Reinvented. It’s worth noting the event has been re-branded as Nokia World, so expect a lot more news to come on the day.
