Nokia joins the netbook bandwagon with the Booklet 3G

Nokia still controls a huge chunk of the mobile market, but the device manufacturer is struggling to redefine itself as consumer interest moves to smartphones and other web-connected gadgets. Today the company announced that it’s making a big move beyond your basic mobile phone, with the release of a netbook called the Nokia Booklet 3G.

Nokia isn’t calling the device a netbook. Instead, its press release describes the Booklet 3G as a “mini-laptop” whose most important feature is its Internet connectivity — which sounds pretty much like the definition of a netbook, albeit a high-end netbook with a 10-inch screen, 12 hours of battery life, and support for Microsoft Windows. (It also looks much more powerful than Nokia’s previously-released tablet devices.)

The news is another sign of the continued blurring of the line between netbooks and smartphones, exemplified by Google’s Android operating system, which will soon expand beyond phones to netbooks and other devices. In this vein, Nokia Vice President for Devices Kai Oistamo describes the Booklet 3G as “a natural evolution for us.” The company also touts the ability to synchronize the new device with your Nokia smartphone.

By the way, Nokia is stumbling towards that kind of netbook-as-mobile-device message in its advertising (see the video embedded below), but it appears to have settled on the awful slogan “all day mobility.” That sounds nice, I guess, how exactly is that different from a plain-vanilla mobile phone?

The company says it will release more info, such as pricing and the release date, at Nokia World on September 2.

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