Vanjoki

Sayings of Anssi Vanjoki have got some attention recently. Part of his role as EVP Markets may be to stir up headlines. After replying "never say never. But..." in German Wirtschaftswochen's interview (here is a Google translation from German) to a question whether Nokia could consider selling its device manufacturing, shit hit the fan in Finnish media that is always so worried about Nokia leaving Finland. Taloussanomat was pondering in it's news (here is a Google translation from Finnish) whether Nokia is saying goodbye to cell phone manufacturing. Although, everyone knows that Nokia can not just stop selling phones because that's what they do. The services that Nokia has today are to sell more phones or to get a better price for them. No one would buy these services as such.

Vanjoki's "copy with pride" was quoted in Apple's counter-sue filing. That's not fair. Copying of ideas is not illegal unless they are patented. Who would want to invest in a company who is there to re-invent the wheel, anyway?

Lastly my blogger name Joe Six-Pack comes from Vanjoki's mouth. In New York Times interview he is quoted saying that “Apple is made for the common man. It’s more for Joe Six-Pack than techno-geeks. But we understand Joe Six-Pack too.” That sounds like he would think Nokia's devices being somehow superior to other phones, except that the common man just doesn't get it. Well, the customer is always right. Maybe Vanjoki was already thinking about the end of 2010 and beyond, when Nokia will have a polished UI for the common man to use.