Stephen Elop may be thrilled to have his first year as CEO of Nokia out of the way. After all, in the past 12 months, the struggling mobile-phone maker has seen its share price and market share plummet, and the bad news just keeps coming. But it's too soon to count Elop out.
In four months, CEO Stephen Elop has slashed its workforce and turned the company in a new direction. On Friday, he launched his gutsiest strategy yet -- dumping Nokia's ailing Symbian mobile operating system and betting the house on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS.
When Nokia's CEO presents the company's strategy to investors in London on Friday, it could announce plans to use an outside operating system -- namely, Microsoft's , Google's or both, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Nokia has announced that its high-end flagship E7 smartphone will miss the 2010 holiday season. Without explaining what the exact problem was, a spokesperson says Nokia wants to "allow the best possible user experience." Making sure the phone works is a good start.
The launch of the highly anticipated N8 smartphone was delayed again "to do some final amends." When it finally is released, users can look forward to more than 250 new features, including HD video playback.
When Nokia announced last week that its new CEO would be Stephen Elop, longtime Chairman Jorma Ollila, who led the company into the mobile phone business, was deliberately hazy about his own plans. Now we know: Ollila will remain on board through spring 2012 to help with the transition.
On the eve of Nokia World, the world's largest mobile phone provider the resignation of Anssi Vanjoki, the head of its smartphone operations. This comes within days of Nokia naming of a new CEO, in a move to reignite the struggling handset maker.
Nokia has chosen Stephen Elop to become its next CEO. But Nokia has seen its market share fall in the past three years, and Elop takes the job with virtually no experience in handsets, turnarounds, or meaningful innovation.