In our globally connected world, some things are lost in translation. But, perhaps, not all things.
In a delightfully expressive commentary on the wisdom of using Android, Nokia's outgoing chief smartphone person, Anssi Vanjoki, declared that those who use Android are, philosophically speaking, "peeing in their pants" like Finnish boys do to keep warm.
At least this is how the Financial Times reported it saying;
Anssi Vanjoki, outgoing head of Nokia’s smartphone division, likens mobile phone makers that adopt Google’s software to Finnish boys who“pee in their pants” for warmth in the winter. Temporary relief is followed by an even worse predicament.
There seemed to be no explanation why it was only boys who perform this peculiarly Finnish ritual. However, he did offer that cell phone manufacturers who use Android are only giving themselves temporary relief, being somewhat blind to the stinging possibility that Android-use will not bring them long-term profits.
If many manufacturers go the Android route, so the argument goes, where will be the differentiation? There is such a thin line between having a well-functioning operating system and one that, in real people's eyes, is simply a commodity.
It is surely rather upsetting that someone of such vivid communication skills is departing Nokia's bosom. Vanjoki was, a few years ago, so exuberant that he received a speeding ticket of 116,000 euros. And he was merely riding a Harley.
How odd, therefore, at a time in which Nokia needs to perhaps speed its own act up a little, that a man with such a fine mental accelerator should be leaving.
One wonders whether folks at Nokia are nervous at his departure and how they might be showing their nervousness.
