Talk has been circulating that Nokia are looking for a new CEO, with the WSJ at its root. Rumour has it that Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is on his way out, and Nokia are scouting around for a new CEO. Reasons given in the WSJ are that Nokia has “struggled to find traction for the company in the market for high-end smartphones”
The WSJ says it’s source is quoted as “people familiar with the situation”, which is so vague as to give absolutely no indication if the source in question even works for Nokia, and makes it sound extremely questionable. Whether this source is reliable or not, it’s unlikely that anything will happen before the end of August though, as it’s not often that big announcements are made over the summer.
There’s no official line from Nokia on this yet, but the latest figures are due to arrive on Thursday, when we’ll see how Nokia’s market share has stood up this last year.
Although it has a massive market share, Nokia’s grip might be slipping. However, the company appears to be under no illusions, and a post from Nokia’s new Head of Mobile Solutions, Anssi Vanjoki, at the beginning of July, faced up to the work Nokia needs to do. He said: “I am committed, perhaps even obsessed, with getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices…We have all the assets — including R&D and product development – at our disposal under one roof – to produce killer smartphones and market-changing mobile computers.”
What do you think? Is Nokia losing the smartphone battle? Should it focus its attentions on entry level devices instead?
