Mobile Computing News

Photo: Steve Rhodes / Flickr

It seems the continued poor performance of Nokia smartphones has driven the company’s board of directors to take action. The woes, poor performance, and seeming lack of direction of late have come to a crunch for Nokia’ leadership, with the company reportedly looking for a new CEO.

We know it all

The Wall Street Journal’s spy-like sources have sent the publication word that Nokia is in the preliminary stages of searching for a new CEO. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the current CEO, has been under a lot of pressure from investors and analysts alike due to his company’s sagging financial performance, coupled with an apparent lack of plans on how to remedy the problem. These same sources told the publication that two US execs have been interviewed for the position, with one rejecting it on the grounds of not being prepared to move to Finland for the opportunity.

Chronology of the problems

The Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest issue facing Nokia, as hinted at above, is its once dizzying financial performance softening rapidly. And the primary cause of that problem is Nokia’s seeming inability to come to grips with the current generation of smartphones.

Photo: Nokia

The company has seen relative industry newcomers Apple steal market share away from it with the insanely popular iPhone, while Google Android cemented itself as a legitimate contender for mobile OS dominance. As if the new kids on the block weren’t a headache enough, long-term competitor RIM, with its BlackBerry handsets, has continued to perform well throughout, making the transition seamless. Some Nokia smartphones have been close to perfect, while others have been way off the mark. Others, still, sit in the uncomfortable position of checking all the boxes, while doing nothing remarkable. Yep, hardly the product mix for this very competitive industry.

Then, recently, Nokia’s newly appointed head of Mobile Solutions, Anssi Vanjoki, wrote a blog post that confused us, due to key points on smartphone strategy differing from what others in the company were saying.

We’ve been quite critical of Nokia in the past, particularly on product strategy. We’d like to see them compete, at the very least, but we sort of feel like they’re missing it, and its unfortunate that the dirt rolls downhill onto the figurehead, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, because the problem is far more entrenched than lying in just one man.

Perhaps this is the beginning of the slow recovery for Nokia. Or perhaps this is a band-aid solution to a far deeper problem.