Now Nokia's Chairman says he's leaving, but in 2012
However, one thing is for sure, if you are looking to Nokia to suddenly find its Jonathan Ive or Steve Jobs, you’ll be waiting a long time. Having talked in depth to executives, I don’t think Nokia even wants a product obsessive to pilot the Supertanker that is Nokia’s mobile business.
For instance, this quote from Niklas Savanger, executive vice-president and general manager of Markets, at Nokia World, speaks volumes: “Execution is dependent on a much larger business than just two people. Right now there are 60,000 other Nokia people committed to executing on the strategy that we have.” In other words, well go on managing things like we always have – in a collegiate, distinctly Finnish ‘groupthink’ manner. Not in the manner of someone with one single vision, since we have so many handsets and products to support.
And that’s an issue, because software platforms, which is where the real fight is now for mobile, depend on having that single software vision.