One
of two things is happening at Nokia right now – the Finnish telecom
company is in a serious state of transition, or it has a serious
problem with talent retention. Finnish online news site Talous
Sanomat is
reporting that Ari
Jaaksi, the VP in charge of Nokia's Meego Devices, has tendered his
resignation.
For
those of you keeping count, this is the third high-profile executive
to leave the company in less than a month. In September, Nokia
CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was
replaced by former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop. Days later,
Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokia's
N-Series, announced
he would be leaving the company within the next six months.
Vanjoki admitted his departure was inspired by being overlooked
for the open CEO position.
According
to Talous
Sanomat, Jaaksi
has worked at Nokia since 1998. In 2003, he began working on Nokia's
Linux-based Maemo OS, which merged
with Intel's Moblin OS last February to become MeeGo. MeeGo
will power all
of Nokia's forthcoming smartphones, with the exception of N8,
which will be the last to run Symbian. Its successor, the N9, has
been touted by Nokia as the company's flagship phone, set to take on
its iPhone and Android competitors. Engadget pointed
out that Mobile-Review's Eldar
Murtazin called MeeGo "not so good at the moment," despite
the N9 hardware being "near perfect."
"Nokia
needs to step up on the MeeGo side. MeeGo has grown up from Maemo and
there is much more at stake now," Gartner analyst Carolina
Milanes told The
Economic Times.
"They need someone who understands mobile and PC, who might be
closer to Intel and a much better public person."
Jaaksi
will be replaced by Alberto Torres, who has been the executive vice
president of mobile solutions since last year.
Engadget investigated
what the shakeup means for MeeGo's planned Q4 roll-out, which a
Nokia spokesperson said would not be affected. Another spokesperson
cryptically told Engadget that
an "update on MeeGo" will be announced by year's end.
This
comes at a critical time for the mobile company that has been quickly
losing market share to its smartphone competitors, and ranked
dead last in J.D. Power's customer satisfaction survey.
