Nokia's MeeGo device lead exits amid wider chaos
updated 12:25 pm EDT, Tue October 5, 2010
Nokia MeeGo chief Ari Jaaksi leaves
Nokia suffered another setback in its smartphone plans today with word that the company's MeeGo devices VP Ari Jaaksi had quit the company last week. Finland's Talous Sanomat wasn't given a reason for the departure but was told that the exit wouldn't affect the company's plans to have a MeeGo device shipping by the end of the year. The only Nokia-made device known in the works so far is the N9.
The company also told Engadget that there would be an "updated on MeeGo" before the end of the year, though the statement implies that it wouldn't necessarily be shipping devices and could instead simply show the latest state of the platform or commit to a timeframe in 2011.
The resignation compounds problems for Nokia in keeping its executives onboard. Last month, it saw the high-profile departure of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo from the CEO position after he was unable to stop a major slide in market share as Apple, Google and RIM have undermined Nokia's dominant position; he was replaced with former Microsoft business executive Stephen Elop. Smartphone lead Anssi Vanjoki also planned to quit just a day before the Nokia World expo and will be replaced in six months.
Most of the company's recent struggles in the phone arena have come from its conservatism towards smartphones, which only began adopting touchscreens in earnest in the past year and have faced problems such as frustrated developers, content that was only recently unified under the Ovi Store, and a lack of modern smartphone features such as capacitive multi-touch screens and fast processors. It has also historically neglected the US market, although that may change with an N8 for AT&T unveiled as soon as today.
MeeGo is a joint development with Intel and is poised to modernize Nokia's high-end Nseries phones with a modern multi-touch interface and high levels of multitasking.
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I now understand the term clearly. Apple really threw a monkey wrench into the business models of some pretty big tech giants didn't they. I wonder how long the consumer would have waited for the smartphones and tablets we see now if Apple hadn't jump started the whole thing. Yes, yes, smartphones and tablets existed before Apple but nobody was buying them, nobody wanted them, nobody knew why they would want one.