Nokia Windows Phone interest miuted by exec exit

Windows Phone saw mixed performance Wednesday as talk of strong sales was dampened by an abrupt executive departure. Nokia briefed AllThingsD that the Lumia 900's demand was still high and it was producing phones "as quickly as possible" to meet demand. Very few were opting to replace their phones to solve the missing data bug and were instead updating firmware, suggesting that the shipments weren't replacement units.

While it's thought that brief unavailability might have been due to AT&T and Nokia swapping in stock with the new firmware, a sign that it related more to demand would be a positive for the Finnish phone designer. Its shipments haven't been growing as quickly as needed, and European sales are still modest as customers are still regularly steered towards Android or iPhone hardware.

The platform nonetheless took a hit as Microsoft confirmed that its Windows Phone Product Marketing general manager Gavin Kim had left after just five months in the role. A low-key confirmation to ZDNet revealed that he had made a "personal decision" to leave, indicating that he had likely switched directly to a different company after himself having come from Samsung. Microsoft felt "very good" about Kim's work, but had already named Eugene Ho as the replacement.

As GM, Kim may have seen some success if at all involved with the Smoked by Windows Phone challenge, which for a brief few days had spurred rare lineups at Microsoft stores. However, Microsoft's collective marketing has so far done nothing to stop an ongoing slide in share.

By Electronista Staff

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