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Nokia Names Microsoft's Elop As New CEO
itwbennett writes "Nokia has tapped Stephen Elop, former president of Microsoft's business software group, to become its new CEO effective Sept. 21. Elop will replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who loses his board seat immediately and will step down from the CEO position on Sept. 20. Microsoft said Elop will leave immediately, but the company doesn't seem to be rushing to fill the vacancy at the top of one of its largest divisions. 'I am writing to let you know that Stephen Elop has been offered and has accepted the job as CEO of Nokia and will be leaving Microsoft, effective immediately,' Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a letter to employees late Thursday."
Ok, I have no clue who the guy is but, if I were on the Nokia board and looking for a new CEO to help raise Nokia back to relevance in the face of the iPhone's success, I would look to a Google exec before one from Microsoft. Not to be a smartass, but why would you hire an exec from a company that hasn't yet figured out how to combat Apple's success in the smartphone market when you need an exec who knows how to combat Apple's success in the smartphone market? Google, at least, is giving Apple a run for its money and is making the smartphone market interesting. Microsoft has ... well, nothing in the smartphone market.
A very, very weird choice...
Uh, why Microsoft? I think they've proven they suck with anything "cool", especially in the mobile realm. Android is now starting to steamroll BB in stats, and has a cool tablet coming out. Why would a mobile company trying to 'come back' (of sorts) hire a MS person? I don't get it.
Stuff that matters to stuffed suits in accounts receivable.
I bought a e52 because it had a bunch of things that I wanted and hey, symbian is open source now too, right?
Well, in a word, disappointment. Serial disappointment. It's not the surface of the interface, it's not qt or lack thereof, it's complete cluelessness in functionality. Every single feature disappoints in some way, down to the calendar and the timer -- both of which are far inferior to the very same thing in my 2001 vintage 6310. The only thing you might run the "open sourced" symbian on within the foreseeable future is beagle boards. Nothing wrong with beagle boards, but I wouldn't run symbian on them. I want to fix my damned phone, but that part isn't open.
It really is impressive just how much nokia failed to "get". It's like they're dead set on finding irrelevance from within heaps and heaps of potential.
That's a good point. On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant. I only use it because I have to at work. So in my mind his software experience doesn't fit well with the requirements for mobile device software which really must be lean and elegant in design. The UI for MS Office while it's fine for a full PC doesn't translate to mobile devices either, so that experience isn't germane. Microsoft's approach to software development has been the anti-thesis of agile and nimble for some years now. What went wrong with Vista's development was just an extreme example of more systemic problems at Microsoft. Yes, MS Office hasn't had any big obvious failures (except Clippy), but that's by comparison to Vista. What if it weren't a de facto monopoly? Would it remain competitive? It's installed base in the corporate world makes it almost untouchable. That's not true in the mobile world which is really just getting started and is very competitive and fast moving. That's nothing like the MS Office experience.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant.
On the other other hand, Office enjoys ridiculous market share and makes a staggering amount of money.
I wonder which of those things would be more important to a corporation.
far more, nokia is embracing linux for it's next mass platform (meego) and open-sourcing it's current platforn (symbian).
i hope they will keep this attitude.
for now they are a little slow to deliver, but they are imho the most open mobiles company.
Depends on the metrics. I'm sure Apple makes oodles more money with the iPhone and related stuff (content, accessories) than Google is making with Android and related stuff.
I'm fairly sure RIM is, too.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant.
You meant OpenOffice.
These issues have everything to do with the topic. Every possible corner of the topic is covered in these issues. We have Mobile competetive field, Microsoft executive moving to competitor, deals with the devil, partnership potentials, future potentials, breach of faith and so on. We don't have the death of the moved-to company yet because Nokia is not yet in that phase of the engagement.
And yet I'm going to relent. After further consideration Nokia is too smart to be bought off by Microsoft, too big to believe in a benefit, too clever to leave their CEO ungoverned. At 30 months this guy's too new to Redmond to be an external asset unless their mindscaping has risen to Treadstone levels, and I don't believe it has. There's no evidence of a significant Scientology incursion into the Microsoft culture, which is what it would take to turn him so quick. Nokia's Board is learned enough and responsible enough to consider these issues, monitor their new CEO carefully and judge the risks. They're not dumb, and they've not reached their dotage. If he's a plant he's not going to sprout at Nokia.
I recant my objections. He may compete well and that would be a Good Thing.
If Nokia should enter into a "partnership" with Microsoft in the near future though, Nokia is an easy short. Microsoft is a competitor with trivial market share and limited resources in the space. Microsoft wants to compete in this space with Windows Phone 7. Nokia remains, and is projected to remain, the dominant player in the space. Such a partnership would gain Nokia nothing and benefit Microsoft well so it would be an abrogation of corporate responsibility for Nokia to enter into such a deal. If you see it, Nokia is PWNed. Short Nokia hard in that case and you can retire on the movement.
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Microsoft's Marc Brown had nothing to do with phones either, when he took a seat on the board of Sendo.
He was then and remained through the project, an employee of Microsoft.
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