Nokia's chief of mobile solutions resigns

By on Sep 13, 2010 at 8:32 AM
Business September 13, 2010

The timing of the following announcement is a little shocking, with Nokia’s worldwide conference — Nokia World — set to kick off tomorrow, but it does seem to indicate that the world’s top handset OEM is not going to settle for business as usual any longer. Today, Nokia announced that Anssi Vajoki — the company’s head of mobile solutions — will resign, effective in six months. Vajoki has been with Nokia since 1991 and has been in his current role since 2008. The move comes just days after the replacement of current CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop. Nokia’s chairman, Jorma Ollila, said that he too would step down once the CEO transition was complete.

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  • Neofire

    Crazy timing……YEAH!! But if you under perform bro you gotta go!!

    • infinus

      work hard in early times and stuck to same company for decades.

      then one day you will be promoted to bigger position.

      you will lot of time to surf internet ( no privilege needed)
      think of lunch, snack and go home.

  • Noel

    I love Nokia but at this point there is some catching up to do when it comes to super smart devices..Android is moving way too fast and it cud be the dorminant OS in a few yrs. Nokia needs to perfect MeeGo and crank out devices that will get to the masses pronto and at reasonable cost.

    • infinus

      nokians doesn’t know the meaning for innovation.

      nokia was always good in feature phones.
      symbian was just a luck.

      let’s see what new ceooooh has to offer to common folks.

  • Ooohloff Vostertag

    You know all that Vajoki did at work all day was surf the net and think about what he wanted for lunch that day. I would have canned him too.

    • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

      As a personal friend of Anssi’s, I have to say that was an utterly stupid thing to say. He’s resigning, not being fired or demoted like OPK, the former CEO. I think its all about him being passed over as CEO. He’s the Finnish Steve Jobs, and I’d hoped he was the next CEO of Nokia, but not in the cards. Mobile just lost a big visionary. MeeGo was his baby.

      • infinus

        poor MeeGo is orphan now.

        lets hope Elop adopts MeeGo.

  • Jarrett

    I understand the whole “Rats from a sinking ship” idea but this is like that. Nokia is fine and could continue at this lethargic pace for ten years and be fine. Nokia is still the largest phone manufacturer on the planet and that isn’t changing boys and girls. They are not making much money right now but they are still outselling everyone.

    • Perspective

      This is one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve ever read.

      “Nokia is fine and could continue at this lethargic pace for ten years and be fine.”

      Ummm, obviously it’s not fine. People are being fired. Number one signed a company is under-performing: leadership is replaced against their wishes.

      “Nokia is still the largest phone manufacturer on the planet and that isn’t changing boys and girls. They are not making much money right now but they are still outselling everyone.”

      “Sales” without profit is meaningless, even if they are “outselling” everyone, and people saying “Nokia will be fine” are really not helping.

      • Elektra

        It’s called blind fanaticism. Nokia would be at the verge of bankruptcy, and those blind fans would still think that everything is ok. Nokia could release a handset tomorrow with a black and white display, but to their eyes, it would be 16m colors, lol.

      • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

        Nokia’s share has been up the last four quarters. Who else’s has?

        Nokia has always been profitable. Besides Apple, who else has? HTC? Samsung? Moto? SE? LG? Not one of them has, but all the hate for Nokia…

        Nokia is the ONLY company in mobile that sells both smartphones and feature phones in all world markets at a profit. I don’t get why there’s not the same hate for Samsung, LG, Moto, and SE. But of course! They’re visible in the US. Its more important to see them in the US than to be profitable and make good devices.

        BTW, PEOPLE aren’t being fired. ONE PERSON was demoted and reassigned. This guy resigned, and likely for not being chosen as the next CEO, even though he was widely favored in public circles. He was passed over for a Canadian with little experience in devices only because he can relate to American carriers that routinely block Nokia devices from carrier shelves.

        Nokia IS making profit, unlike all the other mobile companies. The only other company to make profits avoids the low end, and doesn’t make feature phones, all to stay out of the low margin game. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t find it shocking to profit when you only market to rich people. But they’re losing share, so maybe Nokia had it right all along…

        Nokia’s 3 year strategy comes to fruition the next 4 quarters. Let’s see how well OPK and Anssi did. I’m betting on the originator of the smartphone, Nokia.

    • Jughead Babbins

      Good point Jarrett, they can make up the per unit losses in volume.

      • Jarrett

        @ Jughead,

        Exactly, certain PC manufacturers have been doing this for a very long time.

      • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

        There aren’t losses, just slim profit margins, unlike Samsung, LG, HTC, and SE, who don’t make any profits…

    • infinus

      OPK, Vajoki are few folks at nokia who build this ship called NOKIA.

      they are coming up with some new trend setting devices.

      if you can’t see your ship being demolished in name of change.

      it’s better not to participate in change.

  • jneill

    He didn’t see it coming…

    Tweet by @anssivanjoki
    “it is great beeing pushed by the best people in the organization. We make grat progress!”
    9:40 AM Sep 3rd via Ovi

    Filed for posterity here: http://twitpic.com/2o263m

  • alen

    i remember when Moto and other US companies ruled the US cell phone market in the 1990′s. then came Nokia with their chick friendly phones and they cleaned up.

    kudos for Apple, Google and Moto for getting the market back

    • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

      Not hard when the carriers help keep you from having to compete by blocking Nokia devices.

  • jneill

    @BGR he’s called Anssi Vanjoki (not Vajoki)

  • Nokia Board of Directors

    Anssi put the “joki” in Vajoki.

  • Wild Bill

    This guy should of lost his gig a long time just based on his creepy looks.

  • debbie barnes

    Who cares. Nokia is so irrelevent to the US its rediculous. Maybe he can join the sinking ship over at RIM.

    • Wild Bill

      The new dude said he’s going to try to counter their irrelevency in the U.S with some $1.99 Amazon and a few Buy 1 Get 27 Free Deals.

    • OneTwo

      Exactly, Nokia and while i used to like their products alot is non existent in the “Smart Phone” market in the U.S. besides a E model maybe..they need some serious carrier penetration and heavy subsidies along with major advertisment to really get the US masses to bat a eye at there products anymore..

      • http://www.symbian-freak.com christexaport

        Well tell the carriers. They propped up the sinking WinMo, but block the growing Symbian and Maemo/MeeGo. Is that Nokia’s fault?

    • infinus

      this actually makes a sense,

      Canadian in Finland.
      v/s
      Finish in Canada.

  • Dara

    He probably wanted to be the boss, and is walking away rather than having to report to the new boss.

    A resignation with a six month lead is not something that a company forces on someone. It would have to be his choice and fairly amicable between both parties for something like that to work.

    What this does tell me though is that in the next six months, we’ll see the new Meego phone and probably Nokia’s Qt browser. I mean, he’s only had that job since July and he must be sticking around for something.

    • Jarrett

      @ Dara,

      Not sure about what products are coming or not coming but clearly the company does want him to stick around for the next six months. Could be products or they just need his leadership as they find someone to fill the spot. He stated that he wanted to pursue other things and as you stated for him to stay another six months is two sides working together, not sure why people are suggesting he was asked to leave.

      • variaatio

        the six months thing is actually a legality. If you resign yourself from a job, Finnish law requires a “resigning time period” aka you must inform your employer, that you are going to leave your job, a certain amount before you actually leave. This is to allow your employer find a new employee for the job. In his case this time is six months. length of the period varies depending how long you have been in your job and how your work contract has been written.

        The actual reason for resign according the local media here in Finland is, that vanjoki wanted to be the next ceo and left when he didn’t get the job.

      • infinus

        this is not true.
        OPK made some mistakes but, he was helping NOKIA to recover.

  • Elektra

    I don’t think they’re happy that someone from North America is taking over their company.

  • Drew

    My goodness, they made the announcement and press conference on Friday. Can we stay current please??

  • http://www.news24.com Daniel

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  • Ryyni

    Actually as Variaatio already pointed out, Vanjoki resigned because this was the second time he did not get promoted to the CEO position.

    Either way, it was time for him to go..

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