Nokia Not Cutting it Design-Wise Argue Shareholders

Nokia head Jorma Ollila, has come under fire from an unexpected source. The CEO of the World’s largest mobile phone maker was addressing an audience of shareholders at the company’s AGM yesterday, when he was confronted with criticism from the floor over the Finnish giant’s handset designs, which seemed to lag behind rivals’ last year. However, the ebullient Ollila brushed aside the rebukes and insisted that his company remains a forerunner in mobile phone design.

Last year, Nokia admitted that its competitors had made inroads in its dominance, due largely to its failure to produce sufficient flip-phones and camera phones. In the end the Finnish company had to spend most of the year cutting prices to entice customers back to the fold.

Ollila told the shareholders, packed into a sports stadium in Helsinki, that his company’s market share, which it maintained at 33% to 34% last year, was the best evidence that Nokia is on the right track. He went on “We are still frontrunners in many ways in design,” adding that the company will launch around 40 new models this year, ten of which will be 3G phones. On Thursday, the company had launched its latest handset, the 88000 model, complete with camera phone and distinctive ring tones composed by Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.

However, there was some support for the dissident shareholders who stuck to their theme that Nokia had fallen behind its rivals in terms of cutting edge design and the company will need to be on its mettle to avoid a repeat of the criticism at the next shareholder get-together.