It’s safe to say that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop did not enjoy his chat with investors on Tuesday. Reuters reports that shareholders at Nokia’s annual general meeting said they were losing patience with Elop’s efforts to turn around his company’s fortunes and implored him to reconsider his decision to go exclusively with Windows Phone as the official operating system of all Nokia smartphones.
“Are you aware that results are what matter?” one shareholder asked. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Please switch to another road.”
Elop wouldn’t budge from his commitment to Windows Phone, however, and told investors that “it’s very clear to us that in today’s war of ecosystems, we’ve made a very clear decision to focus on Windows Phone with our Lumia product line… and it is with that that we will compete with competitors like Samsung and Android.”
Juha Varis, senior portfolio manager at Nokia shareholder Danske Capital, told Reuters that Elop was being stubborn and seriously needed to rethink his exclusive commitment to Windows Phone.
“He has closed doors,” he said. “They don’t have new ideas now. Their fate is all in Windows Phones.”
