Nokia Corporation, which has been struggling in the smart-phone business, is reportedly looking for a new CEO to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
The Wall Street Journal reported that “sources close to the situation” have said that the move is due to Nokia not being able to keep up in the smart-phone race and hold valid competition against Apple and Android-based phones. Even though the company still sells more mobile phones than any other manufacturer, the Finland-based company’s stock has dropped 42% since April.
The WSJ had trouble reaching Nokia spokespeople in Finland, however, a U.S.-based spokeswoman declined to comment on the speculation. One of the New York City-based newspaper’s sources said that Nokia’s board members are set to make a decision at the end of the month.
According to sources, Nokia has flown in, at least, two U.S.-based CEOs of major technology companies for interviews and neither were interested in moving to Espoo, Finland, the company’s international headquarters.
Nokia acquired Kallasvuo in 2006, one year before Apple launched the iPhone and the company has failed to compete ever since. Due to weak earnings in 2010′s first quarter, Nokia replaced several major executives and top management and also created a special division just for designing and producing smart-phones.
Analysts blame the Finnish company’s operating system and its applications to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system, which has recently taken the world by storm in the Motorola Droid X.
Current Microsoft Corporation Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner made the comparison and called the iPhone 4 Apple’s Windows Vista.
“It looks like iPhone 4 might be their Vista and I’m okay with that,” Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, told an audience during the Worldwide Partner Conference on July 14.
If you are not aware (at this point, everyone is), Turner was poking fun at his main rival, referring to the dismay that consumers had at his own company due to Vista having to have several major updates and Service Packs before the operating system’s bugs and compatibility issues were resolved.
The latest iPhone has had major antenna issues, with Apple founder Steve Jobs even calling the problem “Antennagate”. Apple tried to ratify the problem at its June 16th conference by offering free bumpers and making sure that the company threw its rivals (primarily RIM and Motorola) under the bus. Jobs even went the length to demonstrate reception issues with the rival’s phones.
