Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Well this may sound good to some people but I think changing the CEO at this time is not a good project and can disrupt the future plans for Nokia.:(

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...ow/6190426.cms

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Its Damn good, the CEO sets the direction of the company.. the last 5 years have been a complete failure

I just hope the new CEO realizes Symbian is whats dragging the company down..

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

2008 was one of the company's best fiscal year.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

This is not ever what a company needs in the long term run... but you're right.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

It's been only about five months since WSJ told us that OPK could lose his job at the annual shareholders meeting. Turned out to be bogus.

Nokia wants new CEO: Rumour.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

if it's true this time, it's bad news, isn't it? a new ceo would have to change at least something so that people see he's there?

what could he change?

the "qt on symbian and meego" strategy? better not. i think that's good.
he could ditch symbian.... better not. i like it better than all other phone OSs i've tried, including maemo.
he could ditch meego, of course... but i hope he won't.

is there anything at all he could do that would change things for the better? (for me as a consumer, not for the shareholders.)

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

I Just hope the new CEO doesn't drop MeeGo and go Android. Then there will never be another phone just for me *sob sob*.

My N900 can't really last *forever*... I mean, it's cool and all.. but..

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Having used Android for the last few days, it would be a major backward step for Nokia to ditch Maemo/MeeGo for Android, as they're not competitors at all - Symbian vs. Android seems more appropriate. Nokia with Maemo/MeeGo have the opportunity to define a new market segment all to themselves.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Benny, exactly. The strategy is largly right, execution needs to improve. So the CEO could do a bunch of smaller things:
- put fire under some asses to move things accross the board faster
- make sure stupid quality control mistakes are reduced (how on earth could they miss the shiny ring around N900 camera causing a big problem with flash, for example?)
- reaffirm the market that Meego and Symbian is where its at, NO Android, thank you very much
- make sure inexplicable side projects are dropped - see e.g. the Symbian Radio they demoed in a trade fair some time ago and that Symbian Guru even reviewed - what the hell was that? Didn't they learn anything from the picture pendandt and other weird accessories of the past?
- make that Microsoft partnership move faster to provide some meaningful competition to RIM.
- make sure no one leaves work at 4pm and cancels all vacation time for next 6 months at least for both strategically and execution wise important staff
- try to make upgrading from S^3 to S^4 possible.

etc.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

What Nokia needs is good, really good implementation of OVI package. Rest is in place already or goes in good direction:

- Symbian - refresh of UI and underlying system - OK
- MeeGo - well, I am not sure if hiccup with abandoning of Maemo was necessary but lets say it may be good
- Qt everywhere - unified UI library for all Nokia systems + desktops + even Android (they are working on it, slowly and nothing official but effort is there)
- hardware - pushing prices of smartphones down and making them affordable for much, much more people - great!

The only - but crucial - missing piece is OVI which on paper provides market for apps, place for meetings and numerous services but execution so far is hopeless.

Also what bugelrex wrote: new CEO will try to be visible and with attitude "new boss is here" can do much damage. Especially if (s)he comes from the other side of Atlantic.

Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

probably old news on these board....

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

If its old news (which it is) why create a new thread?

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

actually WSJ said it first long before engadget....

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

Engagdet is just quoting WSJ. Engadget is pretty far from trusted source for business news. :)

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

So where's the link to the 'old news'?

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

http://talk.maemo.org/msearch.php

.... or for the lazy http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...ight=nokia+ceo

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

both are old news...It was first posted here ;)

but no reponse.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...549#post757549

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

Well, all of that other stuff is neither here nor there, the point here is... Olli-Pekka has run Nokia into the ground and it's high time he leaves.

Re: Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)
 

I'm getting old - in my days 5-hour-old news were still pretty hot... :D

@scribbles: I would concur, but some of the statements given in the thread linked above are sadly true: a new CEO might even do more damage than the current one.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

The thread "Nokia CEO is toast (says engadget)" (9 posts) has been merged into this thread.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

I think the CEO should go. While there is no doubt that 2008 was good for Nokia, given the dominant position that Nokia came from and then conceding the highly lucrative smart phone market (gross Margins c.45% vs lower end phones where margins are c.5%) to the likes of Apple (somewhat unavoidable), HTC, Samsung etc. (completely avoidable) was a big strategic blunder. Nokia came from and to a certain extent is still stuck in hardware is king mindset, similar to IBM of early 80s, whereas increasingly the smartphone market is moving to the concept that hardware is commodity and software is king.

I had to make such changes in a previous life where I had to completely change the business model of a company and had to reduce the headcount of the company from over 200 employees, most of whom were hardware technicians to c. 35, most of them software devs. It was painful but it was what ensured the survival of the company in the end. Unfortunately Nokia is in a similar position today and it is less the quality of their hardware and more the quality of their software and post sale support, which is abysmal at present, that would determine the company's future.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

the rumors about a new CEO is here again. The fact is Nokia themselfs has probadly nown the plans over a half year.

Please dont take this message as trolling and sorry for my poorr english. But how about this some speculation based on the fact that money decides the future most the times... I hope as hell I am wrong.

* Meego project will get dished. mainly because its a new os and to geekish for mainstream people.
* Instead they decide to use Winmobile7 on highend devices
* symbian on low/midend as now.

I am not an expert but thing is bussines as usual and licensing winmobile from microsoft could maybe save money for Nokia and it seems like most of the engineer at nokia prefar Symbian cause they now that OS for long and the small group of Meego developers well they will maybe loose theyr job == nokia saves some money.

Fact is this could be true:( also maybe thats why there isnt that mush talk/info about Meego at nokia the latest months... most the time we herrumors about new symbian phones :(

just my...

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Well, if Nokia were not this big, Winmo or Android would make perfect sense. However, given the size of Nokia, it would be in their interest to create a long term differentiated offering, so Meego might not be dead. It would burn cash in the short term but most of it is already ready in the form of Maemo, so doesn't make sense to abandon it at this time, especially given that most people like the software on their N900s (I know it it buggy but fundamentally people like the capability of the software).

However, you could be absolutely right. The new CEO would be looking to make quick changes and Android/Winmo offers a great opportunity to do just that.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

How so? Let me know exactly how symbian is bringing nokia down. Please?

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Put 3 phones next to each other with similar hardware design, Android, Symbian, iphone
ask 10 non-geeks to use the phone (mid 30's non tech workers) to do tasks such as
- make a call, answer a call
- use calender to make an appt
- add/edit/delete a contact
- create a playlist of music
- turn on/off bluetooth
- download a popular app (Shazaam)
- browse the photo gallery
- give marks on how "smooth" the UI is

Symbian is just too clunky when compared to the other 2 for everyday tasks for "average joe".

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Which is probably why they're writing a new UI from scratch for Symbian^4, should be out on handsets H1 next year. That's when I'll judge whether Symbian is worth keeping. I'm optimistic, but at the same time a bit worried they might try to keep it too familiar with the older Symbian.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Man, if only the N900 were ACTUALLY made with open-source friendly components so that it would be genuinely future-proofed by community support. :P

Yeah yeah, same old song but it's so much more truer with every new Maemo device, it seems, despite all the clarion assurances of MORE openness in the past.

It's not often that we agree--but for once, I'd concede to agreeing with everything you just posted. :) Except to say that I wouldn't mind Android being served up by Nokia, under current circumstances. With a new CEO--if he's aggressive enough about pushing quality and CUSTOMER SUPPORT (it seemed you might have implied it, but didn't mention it) and improved the brand--then I would agree and suggest they don't touch Android at that point and go from a renewed position of brand strength.

My opinion is that with the current regime and direction, Nokia is simply making motions not unlike the shifting of tables and chairs on a sinking ship.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was never the natural successor of Nokia's previous CEO Jorma Ollila. When Ollila left his post in 2006, his second in command left as well. Jorma Ollila is now the Chairman on the Nokia board of directors and he seems to be the person in charge of looking for a replacement to OPK.

I agree with everyone who thinks that the direction of Nokia has been positive with the OS's and strategy, but the actual implementation has been very poor at parts. Such as various parts of the Ovi products (Music, Store, etc. etc.), but then again I think Ovi Maps has been a great sign of what it is like when they get it right.

Also the amount of time to bring products to the market after being announced has been ridiculously slow, even though Nokia promised two years ago at the Mobile World Congress that they are speeding up this process. The design of the products at Nokia has not been ground breaking lately. Nokia devices are very good quality in my eyes but there hasn't been much new innovation on the devices design side of the business.

We have seen in the PC - Mac laptop market how much design really matters and how much people want nice / sexy looking devices. Apple has managed there to take a good chunk of the market even with being much more expensive than the equivalent PC laptop.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

I know 10 non geeks who use symbian phones. they have 5230s aka nokia nurons. They have no issues doing every thing you mentioned. Took them all about 5 mins to learn. Maybe its a preference thing. BUT every one who uses symbian is not a so called geek. There are millions of em oit there.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

It's only when you compare the phone OS to the other 2 then you realize how antiquated the OS is. After using Maemo for a while, going back to Symbian is horrible...

Symbian works, but it cannot move Nokia forward into the future with the current UI design.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

l agree the ui needs work and some type of overhaul. I disagree that its the os thats holding nokia back.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

New CEO's path to success:

1. Release all source for Maemo 5 that Nokia owns.
2. Watch from his cushy window office as this community and others finish what Nokia started.
3. ??? I don't care at the moment; it probably has something to do with MeeGo transparency, but it certainly doesn't involve Android.
4. Profit
5. If danramos declines, receive reach around from tmo member who draws shortest straw.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

I say fire the entire lot, starting with all top level management. Especially the idiots running Maemo/ Meego ... how many years and they haven't delvered. Anyways the replacements can't do nothing pretty much as the volatility is increased if things change ... but the current management has made a ton of mistakes that they need to be let go and not rewarded by waiting it out.

Same roadmap should be kept, the focus for E-Series should increase and no more Symbian N-Series. Maemo/ Meego should be the highend smartphone competition choice and Symbian should play a role for developing markets and low end C series. Cancel the entire X-series, shutter the online Ovi service and rather turn it into an unified app for each phone. Come with a predictable and frequent hardware release cycle. Also the S40 for feature phones can still work, but I think the emphasis is to create more smartphones. Use Symbian as the gateway to access more users. More cheaper smartphones or featurephones running Symbian will give access to Nokia's untapped developer potential in countries like China, India, Brazil, Nigeria, etc.. This way so long as the architecture is unified between Meego and Symbian on the SDK framework then we can begin to see a bunch of apps being developed. This current mentality of segmentation through Software is a archaic method, rather it should be segmentation through hardware not software features. OPK realized this now, but obviously Nokia has been slow to move down this path and for that he needs to be fired, throw them all out like I said. Even right now it doesn't have real direction, we the consumers don't see the direction Nokia is going as it is uncertain and unpredictable (think of the sudden abruptness of the Meego announcement).

Going Android this late in the game is not good, especially with all the work put into Meego. Nokia has to see this through, because the people are watching. The CEO's can change, but another drastic change such as that would reiterate the current feeling that Nokia does not know how to see a project through and is damaging to the brand. Also these differing teams I hate it. Nokia's problems are systemic in nature. From the frequent leaks, to the way Symbian and Maemo had to compete for resources (programmers) ... also I hate this pseudo open source posturing. Nokia is tight lipped about certain things such as Flash ... for god sake just say it will or won't officially ... but then later extolls the virtues of being an open source OS. Yeah please communicate better or just shut up about being open source because the Android guys are more forthcoming in that regard.

Fire them I say, but I also caution bring in talent who is strong enough to make the necessary changes on the inside. I'm sure Nokia's current predicament was not only one guy but a team effort in sucking. Nokia is too large for this management operation, maybe downsize and focus on key markets and reset your benchmarks. I seriously think this is management inefficiencies and lack of engineers. Fewer phone models, focused management, and consolidated working teams is usually the answer to this problem.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

my take: http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com...the-way-o-u-t/

I think change will be extremely helpful at this point, but I worry about two possible consequences: scrapping what can and will work if treated right (MeeGo, Ovi, N-Series) and layoffs.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

and the one who decided N900 wont get MeeGo

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

It's the other way round. I kept my Symbian phone and still use it as my main phone (instead of the N900) because every-day-tasks that you listed are done so much faster and easier on S60 compared to Maemo. - And don't get me started on Android.... tried to browse through a few photos on a friend's HTC Desire the other day. Impossible. It changed to the previous/next image when I wanted to zoom in, it moved the image around when I wanted to see the next one... frustrating. He's selling the thing again on ebay right now, will be using his N900 for the time being and switch back to Symbian as soon as the N8 becomes available. I can tell why.... And that's exactly why I keep my Symbian phone in the first place.

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

-start writing persons name as it is in address book. use green and red phone icons
- no idea
- no idea
- press *
http://www.duntel.sk/Shop/components...edf44ee154.jpg
-probably pain in the ***
-no real difference?
-personal preference

my point?
symbian isn't so bad when you have real buttons....

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Excellent analysis of this situation by Tomi Ahonen as usual

http://communities-dominate.blogs.co...g-for-ceo.html

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

Great read, thanks for the link. Nokia has made, and continues to make, so many mistakes, but they still have the best software strategy for the future. Too bad the best doesn't always win.

Nokia, open all your source. Today!

Re: Nokia wants new CEO: Report
 

With news like this http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/215149.asp, suggesting a consistent pattern of bad behaviour...I hope Nokia would think more than twice on this partnership. In my book, it is better end it than having it going further. Beside...what can MS offer in the core cell phone business(other than the access to the lock-in tech of MS exchange messages services)