Hasta La Gadget!

Late last month, rumors began to swirl that Nokia‘s fearless leader may be closer than ever to grabbing hold of his golden parachute, and with the frustrations surrounding the company’s inability to keep pace with other smartphone producers, it’s certainly a believable whisper. Today, those sharks are still looking for answers, and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo attempted to give some during today’s address to shareholders. One choice quote came right off the top, with OPK stating the following:

“By combining services with devices, Nokia is in a stronger position to grow and create more value for our shareholders. We still have plenty of work to do, but we have built a solid foundation. We believe in our strategy.”

He then went on to list some of the many, many fruitful things that the company has delivered over the past few months (sadly not elaborating on the business shift), noting that Ovi Mail now has eight million registered users, Life Tools would be headed to China “soon,” and that his company shipped some 432 million devices globally last year — more than its top three rivals combined. Of course, it’s not the sum that investors are worried about, it’s the apparent inability to seriously chase the Apples, HTCs, LGs and Samsungs of the world in the smartphone space. To that end, Kallasvuo asserted that in 2010, the company will “introduce a new generation of devices that is expected to help close the gap with the competition in high-end smartphones,” and he continued by claiming that Nokia’s approach “has been to concentrate on fewer, competitive products that bring the features of Symbian-based smartphones to more and more people around the world.” The head-honcho certainly understands the rough position his outfit is in, confessing that Nokia is “working hard to reclaim leadership in high-end smartphones and mobile computers,” and also informing the world that the company’s next “mobile computer” will be humming along on MeeGo. Best of luck out there, OPK — it’s certainly going to take more than a snazzy Symbian^3 marketing campaign to regain the attention of these Android and iPhone OS loyalists.

Update: The full speech has now been posted [PDF], and unfortunately, there really aren’t any juicy tidbits to extract. Typical corporate speak from top to bottom.

Continue reading Nokia ‘combining services with devices,’ says the board approves

Nokia ‘combining services with devices,’ says the board approves originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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