Nokia's first Web Tablet (2001) - That never made it to the Markets.

Credits : Seppo Kärki / Digitoday

Only a few people may have known this secret by Nokia. Many years back Nokia came up with an idea of producing a tablet device, thats nine years ago, before Apple came up with their first iPad! or six years before the iPhone. But things were not meant to go well.

A hint of the device was dropped two weeks agoq when journalist David J. Cord revealed in his book "The Decline and Fall of Nokia" that the company had plans for a tablet computer.

Credits : Seppo Kärki / Digitoday

So then it went like this, The product was finalized, even the user manuals were ready but just after about 1,000 units were manufactured, the production was pulled off and so the Nokia M510 Web Tablet didn't ever made it to the markets.
Esko Yliruusi was on the team that created the tablet, and was responsible for testing the communication capabilities of the device. He was attached to the project up to the point it was canceled in August 2001 and then he left the company.

Credits : Seppo Kärki / Digitoday

The Nokia Web Tablet had a full set of features for hardware of its time. It was designed on an early build of Symbian, called Epoc. It featured native email, calendar, “noticeboard” (like a bulletin board), and Opera web-browser apps.
The user interface was touch-screen and also stylus enabled. There are function buttons and toggles on each side of the tablet. The screen was a full 10-inch 800x600 pixel LCD. The battery power lasted for 4 hours of use, which, if you remember the technology from 2001.

Credits : Seppo Kärki / Digitoday

For connectivity it had USB as well as ps/2 and a 3.5mm headphone jack. & Wi-fi Connectivity was managed by a Nokia C111 Wi-Fi module providing 802.11b connections allowing speeds up to 11Mbps. The M510 even had a stand to keep it upright while it was on the table. Consumers and families were the target of the M510.

Of the 1,000 tablets that were produced, nearly many of them were sent to the crusher. Mr. Yliruusi believes there are about 130 surviving devices. Each member of the development team got their own, “I had a strong feeling that this one is a keeper. There were things in the device that were done just as they should be. I felt that we shall be hearing of gadgets like this,” he said.

Credits : Seppo Kärki / Digitoday

So then in 2005, Nokia announced its first tablet Nokia 770, with a 4-inch screen (which was big for that time). According to Mr. Yliruusi, the 770 took some of the better features of the M510, “When the Nokia 770 was launched I had the feeling that all of our work hadn’t gone to waste.”

Then later after Stephen Elop took over as the CEO of Nokia he chose Windows Phone over Symbian & Meego.
Well for now, we all know Nokia didn't manage to keep its past glory.
But the fact stays that the tablet was ahead of its time to an extent.  Nokia's market research was indicating there was no demand for the product and that was the reason why its production was canceled.

Nokia M510 web tablet specifications :

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Source : Digitoday