I know when I'm not wanted
When we reported on the resignation of Nokia's smartphone boss - Anssi Vanjoki - the day before Nokia world, we resolved to ask him why, if we got the chance. Unfortunately there was no Q&A after his keynote and he was not made available for one-on-ones.
Unless you're the WSJ that is. The business paper managed to get some quality time with Vanjoki at the event and got some gratifyingly frank answers to its questions. When asked why he resigned, Vanjoki said: "I didn't become the CEO. It is as simple as that. You know who the guy is it's not you...so what do you do, you stay or you leave. I decided to leave."
Fair enough. As we said at the time his claim to the CEO throne didn't seem to be a strong one, considering he had been the mastermind behind Nokia's smartphone strategy, which is generally considered to be a relative failure. What kind of a statement would Nokia have been making, as it looks to restart its smartphone challenge, if it had appointed the person partially responsible for its current predicament as CEO?
In discussing Nokia's smartphone challenges, Vajnoki seemed to concede that Nokia made the right decision. He says Nokia's problems stem from Symbian being compared unfavourably to Apple's iOS and Google's Android, but reiterates a quote we first saw reported by the FT, that phone-makers adopting Android are equivalent to Finnish boys peeing in their pants for warmth; "First it gives you a warm feeling, but boy is it cold after that," he said.
What he was referring to is the ability of phone-makers who all use the same OS to differentiate themselves is diminished. Most smartphones already tick all the same hardware boxes these days, but the user experience is primarily dependent on software. He's unrepentant about sticking with Symbian for that reason, but concedes it took too long.
He also conceded that Nokia's continuing weakness in the North American market needs to be resolved. New CEO Stephen Elop is Canadian and thanks to his former roles at Microsoft and Adobe is both well connected in the US tech world and strong on software.
But fair play to Vanjoki - he wanted the CEO job but didn't get it, and decided it was better to move on than stay with that disappointment possibly affecting his attitude to the job. There's no shame in losing out to Apple in terms of software sexiness, as Elop will know only too well.
