Nokia promotes Tirri to CTO with California spot

Nokia on Thursday showed its seriousness in attempting to mend its reputation in smartphones by formally promoting Henry Tirri to the role of Chief Technology Officer. The previous head of the Nokia Research Center will take the role effective immediately and report directly to CEO Stephen Elop. He will also move from Finland to Nokia's US offices in Sunnyvale, California, putting him directly near the offices of Apple in Cupertino and Google in Mountain View.

The outgoing CTO, Rich Green, will be heading back to the US to "pursue new opportunities," although it's unclear whether this is a genuine career change or a euphemism for being fired. Tirri had already been assuming the CTO responsibilities since Green stepped out in June for "personal reasons," according to Nokia. Green was part of a last-ditch reorganization by former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo before the company leader was ousted in favor of Elop.

Nokia under former Microsoft executive Elop has moved some of its most important smartphone development away from Finland towards its San Francisco Bay Area foothold in the US. The shift, underscored with the Tirri promotion, is understood to be an acknowledgment that Nokia has to take the US market and competitors like Apple and Google seriously. Kallasvuo repeatedly promised to improve Nokia's standing in the US but is commonly thought to have paid only lip service, putting little effort either into negotiating US carrier deals or to developing smartphones that would counter the iPhone and later Android hardware.

Some of the first fruit of the Sunnyvale team's work is expected to be Nokia's first Windows Phone, likely to be the Sea Ray.

By Electronista Staff