Nokia was a total hit back in the day. And, everyone was wondering what could have gone wrong? They drowned in the competition. People are no longer going gaga about their mobile phones. The market shares continue to collapse like an avalanche.  For a time I thought they would end up closing down or being bought by a bigger and aggressive enterprise. But, Nokia wants to make a comeback by marrying Windows 8 and joining the tablet bandwagon. This Windows 8 tablet is slated for release on June 2012.

In an interview, Nokia France Head Paul Amsellem, hinted on the upcoming use of Microsoft’s platform to hopefully resurrect their ailing stance in what should be a lucrative industry. He exclaimed, “In June 2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8.”

However, Windows 8 will not be exclusive to Nokia. A challenge that would put the company in competition with other OEM’s developing tablets within the same platform. This is aside from the fact that top ranked tablet makers like Apple, Android and RIM will be updating their respective OS to grab the coveted leadership in the booming tablet market.

In a n annual shareholders meeting last Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took pride in enumerating devices that will use Windows 8. He said, “Windows 8 will power a broad range of devices, from desktops to tablet computers. It has a fast and fluid touch-first user interface but it will also work great with a mouse and keyboard.”

Whether Nokia is refreshing its creativity or has lost its OS magic, the company is changing its course and will anchor their mobile business with smarter phones and augmented locations. Together with Microsoft again, Nokia is taking the next big step in helping out Symbian developers to create applications within the Windows Phone platform. They are also hiring the services of ST-Ericsson to supply them with new chipset. These redirections are taking place while a union strike is on-going.

While waiting for the tablet intro next year, Nokia is soon launching Nokia Lumia 800— a smartphone that runs on Windows 7.5 platform and significantly cheaper than the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2 or iPhone 4S. It will be the first Windows Phone 7 Mango to reach the market and will run on a single-core 1.4-GHz Qualcomm S2 SnapDragon processor, but is limited to 512 MB of RAM. The Lumia smartphone will be carrying Nokia MixRadio powered by The Echo Nest. It has a minimalist design and is perhaps as attractive as the N9.

The early response to Nokia Lumia 800 is very promising. Pre-orders for this smartphone in the UK are way higher than the previously launched Nokia products. Many users have already expressed interest in upgrading to Lumia 800.

They have tried with Intel before, but tablet dreams did not materialize. It’s going to be a bit of a long wait, but Nokia wanted to get this one right.