Hard times
For all that Nokia is putting on a brave face, with its talk of forthcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets, and continued Symbian support, the company isn't having the greatest run of luck, and it's only getting worse. The latest development sees chief technical officer, Richard Green, taking a leave of absence from the company, only a year after he joined.
According to a Nokia spokesperson, Green is leaving "to attend to a personal matter," and his departure will have "no impact on [Nokia's] product strategy or our product launches." However, there is no timeline on Green's return, and a Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, claims that this is likely to be a permanent departure, as Green is apparently unhappy with management decisions at Nokia, such as the abandonment of MeeGo, reports the NYT.
Meanwhile CEO Stephen Elop has dismissed rumours that Samsung has made a takeover bid for Nokia. Speaking at the Open Mobile Sumit, Elop said that: "all the rumours are baseless," and emphasised Nokia's intentions to forge forward with Windows Phone 7.
Given the poor financial results Nokia has returned over the past months, it's not surprising to hear rumours of other handset makers looking to take advantage of Nokia's poor fortunes. However, most of these reports seem to be idle speculation, without any basis in fact.
