Meet Nokia’s Jony Ive
Neat profile of Nokia design guy Marko Ahtisaari by Steven Levy for Wired.
“Finland is a manic-depressive nation both by weather, and by its relationship to Nokia,” says Ahtisaari. “The noise level is high, but my work is to lead the studio—I don’t even read that much [about the company’s troubles.]” But for biographical reasons, Ahtisaari has an extra measure of stress. His father is perhaps the country’s most famous politician, a former president and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. “In a sense, I’m the Chelsea Clinton of Finland,” he says.
With the Lumia series, Nokia has done a great job designing beautiful, unique smartphones, so a sincere high-five to Ahtisaari and his team.
The key questions, of course, are: Will that be enough to convince carriers to buy them in volume and promote them ahead of Apple or Google phones? Or enough to convince consumers to buy them despite Windows 8’s less exciting app and media ecosystem? It wasn’t the last time.
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