Nokia’s Chief Executive has confirmed that the firm’s considering a move into the laptop market.

According to several online reports, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told Finnish broadcaster YLE that the company is “looking very actively... at this opportunity” to make Nokia-branded laptops.

The announcement is exciting, but not entirely surprising, as the mobile phone and laptop markets have been on obvious converging routes for some years now.

Kallasvuo confirmed this by adding that individual devices which we currently identify as either a laptop or mobile phone will, within five years, become a converged device.

It’s worth noting that companies with fingers in both the PC and mobile phone markets already exist, such as Acer and Asus, both strong laptop players but weak in the phone market.

Nokia’s recent decision to launch a USB HSDPA 3G laptop dongle may also be an early indication of its plans to develop branded laptops. ®

Related stories

• Nokia unfolds 7205 Intrigue (24 March 2009)
• Google phone OS to transform Linux netbooks, says researcher (17 March 2009)
• Pair of Nokias comes with more music (11 March 2009)
• Nokia N97 price skyrockets (3 March 2009)
• Nokia nixes flagship phone in US (2 March 2009)
• Psion countersues Intel in not-netbook spat (2 March 2009)
• Report names LG's phones as least reliable (25 February 2009)
• Nokia, Nintendo and Sony struck in wireless patent spat (24 February 2009)
• Updated Nokia to preinstall Skype on handsets (17 February 2009)
• Retailer posts unannounced Nokia phone's spec (10 February 2009)
• Netbook demand surge to slow next year (4 February 2009)