Nokia this morning announced a management shakeup just a day after reporting its first quarterly loss for more than a decade. The world’s largest handset vendor said that Rick Simonson (pictured) – currently CFO – will become head of its low-end mobile phone unit in the devices division. Within the division, Nokia created two new units from the beginning of this month, with one called Mobile Phones and one called Smartphones (led by Jo Harlow). The Mobile Phones unit focuses on the company’s portfolio of Series 30 and Series 40 devices and accounts for more than half of Nokia’s handset sales. Meanwhile Timo Ihamuotila, currently global head of sales, will take the CFO role. Both new roles take effect from the beginning of next month.
Yesterday Nokia reported a quarterly loss of EUR913 million (due mainly to a one-off charge on Nokia Siemens Networks) and forecast an unchanged market share of 38 percent for handsets in the fourth quarter. Although today’s appointment of Simonson is focused on the low-end mobile unit, Nokia also has serious work to do in the smartphone sector. Its share of this market declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter as consumers shunned the Nokia N97 touchscreen in favour of rival products from the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC.
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