Throwback Thursday: Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

In honor of Research In Motion’s upcoming virgin voyage into the mysterious, turbulent waters that are today’s consumer tablet market, we thought we would take a moment to look back fondly at the tablet that started it all. No, not Apple’s iPad… we’re talking about the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Ok, so the Nokia 770 didn’t really “start it all,” but it was the first notable effort from a cell phone manufacturer to lack voice capabilities and carry the “tablet” branding. Launched in 2005, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet featured specs that would make modern tablets hang their heads in shame, including a 4.1-inch resistive touchscreen display, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, 3 hours of usage time per charge and a rip-roaring 250MHz TI processor. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be — the 770 didn’t sell well at all, and despite a few subsequent attempts, Nokia would end up packing in its Internet Tablet brand and refocusing on phones. Of course, Nokia plans to build new tablets now that they’re trendy and desirable, and hopefully the Finnish company’s upcoming efforts afford a more intuitive experience than its Internet Tablets of old.

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, BlackBerry Playbook, Internet Tablet, iOS, iPad, iPad 2, IT, launch, Linux, Nokia, playbook, release, RIM, tablet, Tablets

Zach Epstein