Nokia’s MeeGo VP says “MeeGone”
Has something gone horribly wrong in Finland and no one told us? Nokia’s troubles just went from bad to worse with the confirmed resignation of Vice President in charge of MeeGo Devices, Ari Jaaksi. His departure follows the firing of CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and the resignation of Nokia Mobile Solutions chief and company design guru, Anssi Vanjoki.
MeeGo, the smartphone/tablet/netbook operating system formed from uniting Nokia’s Maemo system and Intel’s Moblin OS, was to be the hope of Nokia’s future. Nokia, due to the fact they have no credible entrant in the smartphone sweepstakes, is faced with the difficult situation of shipping more and more feature phones and making less and less money…and that is a situation that can’t go on forever. A spokesman at Nokia told Engadget that Jaaksi’s departure would not affect Nokia’s promise to have a MeeGo device released before the end of the year (that is, within the next two months), to which I say “BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!” Does Finland have any large bridges, and are you trying to sell me one? The executive in charge of a high profile project doesn’t resign in the 11th hour without having a profound effect on the project, at the very least in terms of the schedule.
Even though Nokia recently hired former Palm designer Peter Skillman to oversee the Meego user experience, with the loss of first Vanjoki and now Jaaksi I think it is safe to assume that with MeeGo critically wounded by the loss of its head and visionary designer, the end of Nokia as a major player in smartphones is at hand. MeeGo was a slim chance for the company to regain relevance, and it is getting slimmer all the time. If the N9, the first device slated to run MeeGo natively, slips too far into 2011 or is in any way a disappointment then it is going to be a far colder winter than normal in Finland.
[Engadget]
