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Nokia Names Microsoft's Elop As New CEO

Posted by Soulskill on from the embracing-and-extending dept.

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."

21 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting turn of fate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the key components of Nokia's current attempt to regain relevance is the (open source) Qt toolkit, powering KDE on Linux. It will be very interesting to see how Nokia under Elop will manage that asset and how Nokia's relation to the Open Source community will evolve.

    I for one wish him, Nokia and all ex-Trolls well.

  2. The hired from Microsoft because ... by Old97 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    of their remarkable success with mobile devices, especially phones? I don't understand this one. How did Elop manage to distance himself from his former employers failures or did Nokia even notice? This does not bode well for Nokia.

    --
    Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
    1. Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... by Xest · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That was my first thought, but to be fair this guy is coming from one of Microsoft's most succesful divisons- the one that brings in one of the largest shares of Microsoft's profits, whilst Microsoft's attempts at entering the mobile market have not come from this division.

      It's unlikely this fellow had much real involvement in Windows Mobile, but does have experience of running one of the most succesful divisions of the largest tech company in the world.

      My biggest concern if anything would be that perhaps this background may leave him too business focussed, and with the current battle for mobile phones being more centred around fun and personal use he may end up just pushing dull handsets that only compete with the likes of the Blackberry and aren't interesting enough to challenge Android and iPhones in the hearts of consumers. Potentially though his skills are transferrable and working in a business focussed division doesn't mean he can't use his management skills on non-business focussed stuff too.

    2. Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... by arivanov · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant.

      So is Symbian.

      And as someone else noted it enjoys ridiculous market share. Once again - so does Symbian.

      So from a modern management perspective where managing Boston Chickin is more important than knowing the industry you manage the man is spot on for the job.

      --
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    3. Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And I wonder what impact he made on that? Office is as close to a rent as one could dream of.

      What I wonder also is what kind of guy Elop is. If you look at his LinkedIn profile, he stayed sufficient time at his first two companies (Boston Chicken, CIO, and Macromedia). Then it's job hoping: just over 1 year at Adobe, same for the stint at Juniper, and now 2.5 years at Microsoft. That doesn't mean the guy is bad, but for the Adobe and Juniper part he left before the consequence of his decisions could be really felt.

      In other words, the guy raised fast, and moved too fast recently to see clearly his impact. I'm sure he has qualities to raise like this, but I saw some of those hoppers: very good at selling themselves and seducing, sometimes less at delivering.

      But now, where he landed, it's certainly time to deliver. So we'll see what the guy is really worth in a few years now. Good luck to him.

    4. Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... by whoever57 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      On the other other hand, Office enjoys ridiculous market share and makes a staggering amount of money.

      Due in no small part, to Microsoft's illegal anti-competitive activities. It's one thing to make vast amounts of money from a monopoly, but making money in a competitive situation (where Nokia is no longer the leader) make take a different skill set.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    5. Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... by Infonaut · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the other other hand, Office enjoys ridiculous market share and makes a staggering amount of money.

      Office makes so much money due to monopoly rents. MS can charge an arm and a leg for software that has remained, in terms of core functionality, unchanged for at least the last two decades. If Nokia wanted someone who was good at leveraging an existing monopoly, Elop would be a great choice. My guess is they wanted someone who might help them create groundbreaking new products and catch up to the industry leaders who are rapidly leaving them in the dust. On paper Elop isn't that guy. Maybe there's more too him. Maybe deep inside there's a radical innovator waiting to come out, like a fierce little alien leaping from some space colonist's body. But I remain skeptical.

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  3. MeeGo? by tsa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I guess this doesn't sound like good news for MeeGo. But maybe I'm too harsh. If Nokia really wants to be a big player in the smartphone market they will have to continue with MeeGo.

    --

    -- Cheers!

    1. Re:MeeGo? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about how a CEO from MS will effect the FOSS projects Nokia has. But maybe, just maybe, it will actually help build some bridges between MS and FOSS.

      --
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    2. Re:MeeGo? by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Business manager types care not about the implementation. They care about vision.

      Nokia is dead set on MeeGo, Qt, and all that open source Jazz. Expect this man's vision to be implemented that way.

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      Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
  4. Re:Hmm, shoulda hired from Google by Keruo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The only reason I just bought an Android phone instead of an N900

    NITDroid(Android 2.2) runs on N900 just fine, if you don't like the Nokia software, switch.
    Thats why N900 is superior platform, it gives YOU the ability to choose the OS yourself instead telling what you can and can't do with the hardware.

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  5. Re:Hmm, shoulda hired from Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    relevance?

    Article is about Nokia >> N900 is a Nokia phone >> original poster probably wishes nokia went droid hardcore. Nokia makes great hardware. Some people find the software lacking.

    But on the other hand, lots of people love the N900 software, given it's nix. So I guess his choice to not pick a n900 is a bit bizarre. I never knew that gps was such a killer app on a phone.

  6. Staggeringly Delusional by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Google, at least, is giving Apple a run for its money"

    Just how delusional can you possibly be?

    Google's Android dumped Apple into 3rd place in the cellphone market two quarters ago. And Google dumped RIM into 2nd place this last quarter.

    Android was selling at a rate of 200,000 new phones a day/73 million a year a few months ago. And that rate has been increasing at a tremendous rate quarter after quarter for the past two years.

    Perhaps you spend your day sitting around in Starbucks, but out in the real world Google is the leader of the cellphone market.

    1. Re:Staggeringly Delusional by nschubach · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Someone had to coordinate, and stick their neck out... and put together a package that sells.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  7. Re:Bai bai nokia by symbolset · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This looks like a troll but it's not. Google "Microsoft master phone" for details. The curse of history is that those who don't learn it are doomed to repeat it.

    --
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  8. Re:Hmm, shoulda hired from Google by odies · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Because Nokia is still the largest player in the mobile industry - by a huge margin - since they make just normal phones too. But they also have a big catalog of different phones for different needs, like the N900 which technical persons and linux users must love. They might not be so relevant in the US, but they have huge marketshare in Europe and Asia. The latter one is where people don't usually have smartphones but just normal phones. However, Elop has said his main job now is to help Nokia target US markets better. That is why it also makes sense to hire an American CEO who has been long time in the technology industry.

    Now, what Nokia actually needs is to get the usability and things like app store and such correct for their smartphone line. There haven't been any improvement on those things with Nokia phones for years and iPhone, Android and the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 have got it a lot more right. Even tho I've used Nokia phones since I was a kid, I wouldn't consider their smartphones now. That is what Nokia needs to work on.

  9. Re:Hmm, shoulda hired from Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Holier-than-thou declaring that the mere mention of "letdown" as the main user experience isn't enough for your taste is even less useful. hth.

    Still and all, because you asked oh-so-nicely, some tidbits:

    - 6310 has a "timer" feature. Not so the e52. Best you can do is set an alarm for a certain time in the future. After setting it'll "helpfully" remind you that it'll go off in N minutes. N being one less than expected based on simple time calculation. Look, that thing has enough cpu power to calculate that sort of thing for me, why can't I put in "now + N minutes" right away?

    - 6310's calendar has a "call somebody" entry type. Not so the e52. It has lots of ways to specify the location, but no way to simply say "I want to call that person, that number, then, that time" All the extra fields that it does add loses me the most-used option. Not useful.

    And as a bonus:

    I used to store SMS messages on the SIM. The e52 simply doesn't let me do that. It won't even show the messages already on the SIM except for the first few characters. There's no way to show the entire message short of taking the SIM out and putting it back in the 6310. Maybe if I moved them off the SIM to the phone first, but that'd mean they get stuck on the e52 and can't be put back on the SIM. GIven that this is the fourth or fifth phone that's held this SIM, that's simply not acceptable.

    There's many more where that came from, like how VoIP 3.0 breaks compatability with just about every SIP provider Out There, the GPS unit is near-deaf and doesn't even show what it's up to, the USB cable isn't usable to recharge the thing if it's too exhausted to pick up the USB before shutting itself off again but not too exhausted to show a nicely lighted start-up animation, and so on, but this should be illustration enough to satisfy your bitching.

  10. Feature phones are dying by Infonaut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They could simply continue making featurephones and dominate that segment, and make tons of money doing so.

    That's like saying Dell or HP can continue to make commodity PCs and dominate that segment. While it may be true, the statement misses the fact that as the mobile market matures, feature phones will become a smaller and smaller slice of the overall pie. Moore's Law is relentless; the feature phone is dying as smartphones become the standard. There is no way Nokia execs are sitting around a big table discussing how they can use feature phones to ensure market dominance. If Nokia doesn't find a way to take the battle to Apple and Android, they're in deep trouble.

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    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  11. It won't last. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This won't last long. Long assignments don't fit by the business profile of the character.

    Worst: North American can never ever fit into the the Nordic work tradition and culture. He will feel pretty limited and lonely there.

    Conclusion: this might lead to astonishing wins on short term (call it "reorganization") but after that he will leave to yet another challenge.

    The battle will keep on between Google and Apple, with M$ as side player collecting reasonably good wins with relatively little innovation.

    Whether Nokia communication devices will make it to the 1966 Corvette driven into a canyon by 13 year old James T. Kirk in 2246 remains unclear, as yet.

  12. Now Nokia is really fucked by melted · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The guy is nothing but a bunch of hot air. He did almost nothing for Office, he came in after Raikes left in 2008, and it was Raikes who ran Office division so successfully. A monkey with half a brain could continue running this monopoly. They needed someone who knows what to do with the company. Elop certainly does not.

  13. nokia owns the world by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    except for the usa . Their only real competition are apple and google... From the usa ... They have been making smartphones for a decade and are looking to get into the usa market with stuff like the n900 and n8. They haven't been able to break the us market so far and i'll bet this is elop's first task .

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    Deleted