First Nokia replaced its former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with the former head of Microsoft’s Business Division Stephen Elop and then the Finnish company’s executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki resigned. Now Ari Jaaksi, the vice president (VP) in charge of the company’s MeeGo devices division, has also resigned.

 

According to The Handheld Blog, the reason behind his departure isn’t known, but what is known is that his departure will not affect the company’s role in the new MeeGo operating system that it created with Intel. A MeeGo-powered mobile device is still expected before the end of 2010 according to a Nokia spokesperson.

 

 

Although Nokia claims that the first MeeGo device is expected before the end of 2010, Intel, Nokia’s partner in the new OS, sings another song. 

 

According to Forbes, Doug Fisher, Intel’s VP of the Software and Solutions Group and general manager of Intel’s Systems Software Division, said that MeeGo-powered smartphones and tablets are in the works, but will only see the light of day some time next year.

 

Handsets and MeeGo tablets will debut during 2011 with smartphones coming in the first half of 2011, but the one exception on the tablet front being the WeTab, which is already available for pre-order in Europe as it will be released in 2010. It will be joined this year by other MeeGo-running devices, the likes of netbooks as well as internet-connected TVs.

 

 

 

During an interview with News Week, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt stated Android-powered smartphones already produce enough new advertising revenue for the search giant to be able to recoup its software development costs. This is important as Google doesn’t make any money from Android itself, instead giving it away for free to its hardware partners. 

 

Schmidt is already envisioning a time where global handset figures for Android smartphones total one billion devices. He also pointed out that if Google managed to obtain just $10 from each user per year, it would amount to Android being a $10 billion business for the company. That would be a considerable chunk (almost 50%) of the company’s revenue, as News Week noted that Google’s revenue this year will be $21 billion.

 

 

 

It’s not only Google who are expecting big revenue figures from its mobile business, as there are similar expectations for Apple’s revolutionary iPad. Colin McGranahan, who is a research analyst at research firm Bernstein Research, told Ars Technica that Cupertino’s iPad is selling at a rate of about 4.5 million devices per quarter.

 

This is substantially more than the 1 million per quarter that the original iPhone sold at launch, as well as more than the 350 000 per quarter figure for DVD players when these launched.

 

If this current sales tempo remains the standard then the iPad could become a $9 billion per year business for Apple, which will put it ahead of the game console industry as well as cellphones. It would be the fourth largest consumer electronics category, just behind TVs, smartphones and notebooks.

 

 

 

News broke this week of Microsoft filing a patent infringement action against Motorola over an alleged breach of nine Microsoft patents on its Android-based smartphones. Motorola’s co-CEO and head of its mobile phone business, Sanjay Jha, said to the Wall Street Journal that he is willing to consider bringing out a Motorola smartphone powered by Redmond’s latest mobile OS.

 

“I am open to finding ways to work with Microsoft,” Jha stated. “But it has to be a compelling offering.” Commenting on the Redmond lawsuit Jha said that he isn’t “overly unsettled” and that “some of these lawsuits are part of business. I would much rather have done without that lawsuit, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We will consider all of our options.”