Nokia's top boffin 'on leave'

Nokia said its chief technology officer has gone on leave, and a Finnish newspaper said he is not likely to return due to differences on strategy, another blow to the struggling cellphone group.

The Helsingin Sanomat quoted unnamed sources as saying Richard Green disagreed with dropping the MeeGo operating system Nokia was developing with Intel in favour of going with Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

Nokia said Green was on leave for personal reasons and would not say when he would be back. Nokia research head Henry Tirri would act in his place.

The move comes as Nokia's once-undisputed market leadership crumbles. The group is losing smartphone market share to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices and, at the low end, to cheaper Asian rivals.

Nokia's falling share price has triggered speculation it may be a takeover target, but bankers said Nokia is far from attracting real suitors due to scepticism about its recovery.

Chief executive Stephen Elop said yesterday the rumours were "baseless". The group was not for sale.

Nokia is switching to Microsoft's Windows Phone software from its own Symbian platform later this year, as part of an overhaul of its phone business set out by Elop four months ago.

Elop's strategy transforms the group from a phone firm providing software and services to one focused on hardware on which to run Microsoft's platform, a change of identity which investors are still absorbing as they consider Microsoft's unproven Windows Phone platform.

Many analysts said Nokia is losing market share so fast it may never recover. The group warned last week that second-quarter cellphone sales would be far below a previous forecast. It also abandoned its full-year outlook, blaming tough competition in China and Europe.

S&P cut its debt rating for Nokia to BBB+/A-2 and put it on credit watch after Fitch ratings agency cut its rating on Nokia's bonds on Tuesday to BBB-, one notch above junk grade.