Nokia seeks changes in the executive suite

According to a report by Reuters, some changes are coming to the executive boardroom at Nokia. Reuters, picking up on a story published by German weekly Wirtschaftswoche, says that among those leaving the Finnish based firm will be Mary T. McDowell who is the executive in charge of Nokia's mobile phones unit.

Chief Development Office Kai Oistamo and Tero Ojanpera, the manager responsible for services and mobile solutions, could also be on the way out according to Wirtschaftswoche. The magazine says it has sources inside the company who report that Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop-who just started in his job in September-will announce organizational changes on February 11th.

While Nokia remains the biggest cellphone maker in the world, the company has been losing market share. The company's failure to compete in the sizzling hot U.S. smartphone business is another problem that needs to be addressed. As we reported, the Nokia X7 which had been expected to join AT&T's subsidized line-up in what could have been a major breakthrough for the Symbian^3 flavored smartphone, ended up being launched as an unlocked model in selected markets. The WSJ reported that it was a decision by Nokia, based on the manufacturer's fears that the carrier would not support the X7, that kept the handset from being branded with the AT&T logo.

Nokia's most competitive smartphone model, the N8, offered an iPhone-sized 3.5 inch capacitive display, a 12MP camera with Xenon flash, HDMI out and up to 32GB of expandable memory with a microSD slot. But despite gaining strong support outside of the States, the first Symbian^3 powered device had not been able to find a major U.S. carrier willing to subsidize the unit.

source: Reuters