In its early years, Nokia was an innovator — the company that became an intimate part of hundreds of millions of peoples’ lives through their mobile phones.
But the company has recently slacked off, and most of the innovation in the mobile industry is coming from the likes of Apple and Google in Silicon Valley.
So Nokia’s board is now reportedly looking at replacing Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with an outsider, and has already interviewed two Americans.
Whoever becomes Nokia’s next CEO is going to have to lead the company forward — and quickly! — especially in the fields of mobile software, platforms, and smartphones. Otherwise, Nokia could wind up stuck only at the low margin, low end of the industry — not where it wants to be.
The decision may ultimately include giving up on some of Nokia’s home-baked OSes and joining up with Google’s Android platform, like Motorola is doing, or Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform.
But first things first — Nokia first has to hire someone.
Russian version