Why isn't Nokia building on this expertise?

"I had an N tablet," Kerton said. "It was awful. A terrible UX [user interface] that only an engineer could love. Designed by committee, disjointed, complicated -- I spent a few nights in a row until the wee hours tinkering, then gave mine away to someone I disliked."

Kerton said Nokia should start fresh and occupy a market position not yet fully realized -- true laptop-replacement tablets. As one of Microsoft's biggest partners for Windows 8, Nokia is given "significant heft" in this regard, he said.

"Windows 8 with could be interesting. It could function as a desktop when docked, or just near its peripherals, while it could function as a tablet while mobile. Instead of just having a window on your work, cloud content, or apps, you could have full desktop contents with you on the go -- no sync required," Kerton said.

However, that idea also faces competition.