Nokia bigwig Anssi Vanjoki has praised the iPhone and Apple’s Steve Jobs for helping to move the mobile phone away from merely a communications device towards a proper portable computing platform. What’s that? A rival mobile maker praising Apple? Colour us flabbergasted.
Nokia’s executive vice president of markets Anssi Vanjoki was interviewed for a BBC report on the future of the mobile internet. While he was quick to play up Nokia’s contributions, rather surprisingly he also chose to single out Nokia’s high-profile rival for high praise.
“Steve Jobs did a great service for the digital industry by focusing the attention where we wanted it to be – on mobile and content.”
Vanjoki – one of Business Week‘s 25 Most Influential People on the Web – has long been an advocate within Nokia for shifting the company’s focus to providing mobile internet devices as well as traditional mobile phone functions.
“More than one billion people have a Nokia device in their pocket,” said Vanjoki, “We believe most of these people who experienced telephony through a mobile device will experience the internet through a mobile device.”
