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Microsoft executive Stephen Elop takes over as Nokia CEO
Sean Fallon
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is out as Nokia's CEO; Microsoft exec Stephen Elop is in
Nokia's new CEO, former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop
Published on Sep 10, 2010
The rumors swirling recently about an impending change in leadership at Nokia have come true, with the company formally announcing today that Stephen Elop, the head of Microsoft's Business Division will be taking over the job, The Associated Press reports.
Before working for Microsoft, Elop also held high-ranking positions at Juniper Networks, Adobe, Macromedia and Boston Chicken (or Boston Market as it is known today).
Nokia has stated that he will take over as CEO starting on September 21st.
That date can't come soon enough. Despite being the leader in cell phone sales volume worldwide, Nokia has fallen way behind companies like Apple, HTC and RIM in terms of mindshare.
Elop will certainly have his work cut out for him.
Elop's main task then, will be to spark consumer interest in some competitive new devices. Despite making decent hardware, Nokia's bread-and-butter Symbian OS is dated, and interest in the Linux-based Maemo and Moblin hybrid dubbed MeeGo has been lukewarm at best.
Clearly, Nokia must find a way to convince a lot of people that it is up to the smartphone challenge.
