Nokia hires BlackBerry vet to speed up smartphone launches
updated 10:10 am EDT, Mon July 5, 2010
Nokia gets RIM to help ailing smartphone business
Nokia has quietly bolstered its phone strategy today by recruiting a key developer from RIM. The BlackBerry creator's Europe and Middle East managing director, Charmaine Eggberry, is leaving to join Nokia as its global senior VP of Go-To-Market Operations. She should handle marketing worldwide but will primarily be tasked with launching phones and services in other countries.
Eggberry previously worked as a marketing director at communications giant Lucent before its merger with Alcatel.
The hire is the latest of an accelerating number of steps Nokia is taking to shore up its struggling phone business, particularly in smartphones. In May, it restructured the company a second time to simplify a complex organization that had been segmented by operating system as much as target market. It also appointed a new mobile lead who has acknowledged that quality and shipping time frames have been issues for Nokia.
The company is still the leader in both smartphones and the broader phone market but has been losing share since mainstream BlackBerries, the iPhone and eventually Android devices reached the market. Symbian, Nokia's choice for an OS has been criticized for an aging, complex interface only now getting multi-touch. Many of its smartphones have also been attacked for being unveiled several months before they actually ship and sometimes not being ready even then. The N97 was unveiled in fall 2008 but didn't ship until summer 2009, when it arrived with unstable firmware that Nokia itself later admitted was poor. The N8 partly addresses this, though it still isn't believed to be shipping until late August, four months later. [via MobileMarketing]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2010
Eggberry is leaving Blackberry. Good.
Anyone see the irony??
Nice to see how someone with talent o move away from RIM.
Honestly i think blackberry's got everything messed up. Each year they update each and every single model of their phone + sometimes they decide to do it once every 6 months.... take the blackberry bold for example. The 9700 was launched in Late October/early November and this year around May, they've already designed a newer version (the new tour they call it).
My point is, STOP WASTING SO MUCH MONEY, research, advertising, etc etc - too many darn models are being released, its so stupid. Lets take a look at Apple now, Apple on;y releases one model per year, that lets them sell more, cases, docks, accessories, speakers etc.... its so much better that way. RIM is getting desperate. Plus the fact their current OS is functioning like windows 95, believe me its garbage - there is not multi-tasking "NOTHING".
Each time I read something bad happening to Blackberry I'm actually happy that they are suffering for not keeping up with consumer demands. If RIM offered more free apps and not always "trying to charge everything you do on there" and releasing a new model once per year they should be fine. Rim needs a new leader because in my opinion, they're confused as heck and do not know who a proper target market.
I hope Eggberry makes Nokia beat RIM. Clearly, its is very usual someone at such a high position is likely to leave their position. But i hope its all for a good reason. Good luck to you Charmaine.