Nokia Boss Sees Silver Lining

Stephen Elop, the chief executive officer of Nokia, admits that the mobile phone manufacturer continues to be in trouble. But Elop is turning to Microsoft for some semblance of salvation.

The former Microsoft employee decided to junk Nokia’s Symbian software and instead use Windows as operating system for Nokia’s Lumia smartphones. The move also meant Nokia has turned its back on using Android.

The decision of using Windows for the Lumia line also translates to Nokia possibly developing its own ecosystem, a term used in the industry to describe the full range of applications that are made available on different mobile devices.

Elop said Nokia chose to adopt Windows as operating system because he believed that Nokia may have entered the Android pace a little too late.

A partnership with Microsoft also means Nokia has some level of autonomy and can safeguard many of its intellectual properties that are not compatible with Android. One example is Nokia’s location-based service that is similar to Google Maps. Navteq is a technology widely used for navigation.

With the many changes that Elop is implementing in Nokia, it appears that the company is gaining some needed ground. In the last quarter of 2012, the company shipped some 4.4 million units of Lumia.

Elop is the first non-Finn to be named as chief executive officer of Nokia. Prior to Nokia, Elop worked at Microsoft for close to two years as head of its Business Division, the same team that launched Office 2010.