Nokia hasn't made any attempts to disguise the fact that it's working on a tablet device, but now we've had the most direct — and senior — confirmation of that work. Marko Ahtisaari, head of design at Nokia, has confessed to Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio, as reported by Reuters, that a third of his time these days is taken up by work on the new tablet. He hasn't disclosed any more pertinent details than that, but given the fact he's responsible for both software and hardware design decisions across Nokia's entire portfolio, the amount of time he's dedicating to the Nokia tablet marks it out as a project well under development.

We most recently heard speculation out of Taiwan that the device in question is a 10-inch, Qualcomm-powered Windows 8 slate, which would make a great deal of sense given Nokia and Microsoft's close working relationship.