History of Nokia

Several years back, Microsoft reached a deal to get Nokia's struggling devices and services
business, and lately, its HERE mapping unit was sold by the Finnish firm to a group of German car
makers.
It's true that Nokia had terrible last five years, but this does not take away the fact that it was this
very business that gave us some of the most memorable phones, and effectively defined the mobile
industry for over a decade prior.
Modest beginnings
But, the name Nokia wasn't yet born. It was the place of his second factory - on the banks of the
Nokianvirta river - that inspired Idestam to name his company Nokia Ab, something which happened
in 1871. After around three decades, the business ventured into electricity generation.
Meanwhile, Eduard Polon founded Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable Works was created by
Arvid Wickstrom in 1912. In 1918, Finnish Rubber Works acquired Nokia to ensure use of the
latter's hydro-power resources, as well as in 1922, the conglomerate that was newly formed also
acquired Finnish Cable Works.
They continued to work independently until 1967, when they were finally united and Nokia
Corporation was born while the three companies were jointly owned. The newly formed company
mainly focused on four markets: paper, electronics, rubber, and cable. It developed things like TVs,
car and bike tires, rubber footwear, toilet paper, communication cables, robotics, PCs, and military
gear, amongst others.
Portfolio growth
Nokia entered into a joint venture with leading Scandinavian color TV manufacturer Salora to create
a radio telephone company, Mobira Oy. Several years after, Nokia launched the first international
cellular system dubbed Nordic Mobile Telephone network, which linked Finland, and Sweden,
Denmark, Norway in the world's. This was followed by the launch of the company's as good as
world's first car phone dubbed.
In 1984, Nokia acquired Salora and changed the name of its own telecommunications unit to NokiaMobira Oy. The year also marked the start of Mobira Talkman, that has been advertised as truly one
of the first transportable cellphones. This means it could be utilized both in and out of car, even
though it was still around 5kg.
3 years later, the business introduced its first compact phone called Mobira Cityman 900, that has
been also the world's first handheld mobile telephone. Despite taking a price of around $5,456, it
and weighing around 800g sold like hot cakes.
The following year brought a period that was rough for the company as it witnessed sharp fall in
gains due to severe price competition in the consumer electronics markets, and suicide was
committed by its chairman Kari Kairamo reportedly because of stress.
The newest leaders brought changes, dividing the business into six units: information, consumer

electronics, cables and machines, telecommunications, mobile phones, and essential businesses,
while divesting other units like flooring, paper, rubber, and ventilation systems.
In 1990's, Nokia's top leaders determined to focus solely on the telecommunications market, and as
a result, the firm's information, power, telly, tire, and cable units were sold off in the very first few
years of the decade.
In 1991, the Finnish prime minister, Harri Holkeri made world's first GSM call. Unsurprisingly, it
had been made using Nokia gear. The following year, the company's first handheld GSM mobile
Nokia 1011 was established.
The apparatus allegedly had a talk time of 90 minutes and will save 99 contact numbers. It was
called Mobira Cityman 2000.
A few years afterwards, the business launched its 2100 chain of mobiles, which were also the first to
feature the iconic Nokia Melody ringtone. Turned out to be a blockbuster with around 20 million
handsets sold worldwide . while Nokia projected to sell 400,000 units, the
In 1996, Nokia 9000 Communicator was launched. The all-in-one mobile, which carried a price of
$800, enabled users to send emails, facsimile, and browse web, besides offering word processing
and spreadsheet capabilities. Although the cellphone managed to make a committed following, it had
been not commercially successful..
In the same year, the company also established the Nokia 8110 slider mobile. Nicknamed "banana
phone", the apparatus featured in the most popular 1999 science fiction action film The Matrix.
World leader
The breathtaking success of the 6100 collection of Nokia - the business sold nearly 41 million
cellular phones in 1998 - helped the business surpass Motorola and end up being the world's top
cellular phone maker because year. It's worth saying the Nokia 6110 was the first phone that came
with all the classic Snake game pre-installed.
Nokia's net sales rose over 50% year-on-year, operating profits shot up almost 75%, and stock price
sky rocketed a whopping 220%, leading to an increase of market capitalization to around $70 billion
from nearly $21 billion.
The year 1998 also found the company found the Nokia 8810, its first cellphone without an outside
antenna. The flagship was also one of the first phones of the Nokia with chrome slider casing.
The following year saw the business establishing the Nokia 3210. It was a solid handset that came in
six colour variants and had a chat time of the remarkable for the time 4- 5 hours.
Along with offering extra ringtones and games, the apparatus also enabled users to send preinstalled picture messages (like Happy Birthday) via SMSs.
The 2000s - a fresh era
Internet technologies and the wireless were converging, along with the 3rd generation of wireless
technology - that promised enhanced multimedia capability - was evolving.

Responding to the changes, the Finnish firm began churning out both sophisticated multimedia
handsets in addition to low-end devices. The year 2001 saw the company establishing the Nokia
7650, it is first phone to feature a built-in camera. It was likewise the first to sport a colour display
that is full.
This was followed by the launching of its (together with the world's) first 3G phone, the Nokia 6650,
in 2002.
The business also launched the Nokia 3650, the primary Symbian Series 60 device to show up in the
usa market the same year. It was also Nokia's first phone.
In 2003, the organization found the Nokia 1100, a budget-friendly phone that sold around a
whopping 250 million units, making it the best-selling phone as well as the best selling consumer
electronics product in the world. Incidentally, it was likewise the billionth phone sold in 2005 of the
firm.
The year 2003 also saw the start of the business's unorthodox-seeming N Gage device. Running
Symbian OS 6.1 (Series 60), the mobile/hand-held gaming system wasn't much successful
commercially as just 3 million units were sold.
The following year, the Nokia 7280 "lipstick" cellphone was established. Element of the company's
"Vogue Phone" line, the apparatus was listed as one of the very best products of the year by Fortune
Magazine.
Midway through the decade, the company started its N series of phones, with the N70, N90, and
N91 being the first members of the string. The main N8 was established after in 2010.
With Apple launching its first-generation iPhone in 2007 and the growing popularity of touchscreen
cellphones, Nokia outed its first all touch smartphone in 2008. Dubbed the 5800 Xpress Music, the
apparatus was also the first to run the touch-driven Symbian v9.4 (S60 5th Edition). As the company
was able to sell around 8 million units of these devices it was successful, but it didn't manage to
create diehard following as it touch-experience was sub par.
Early hiccups and also the heroic fall
It was the year 2001, after becoming the leading phone maker on the planet when Nokia's profits
crumbled. This was mostly a result of a slowdown in cellular phone market. That downfall turned out
to be short-lived, but in 2004, the organization reported that it's market share is slipping, despite
leading with all the solid 35% three years after.
Another hiccup came in 2007, when the company needed to recall a whopping 46 million defective
cell phone batteries. What is even worse was the batteries - which were produced between 2005ending and 2006 -ending - seemed in a wide selection of Nokia cellphones, which meant a sizable
portion of the firm's device portfolio was affected.
On the other hand, iPhone sales skyrocketed during precisely the same interval.
The year 2009 found Nokia laying off 1,700 employees worldwide . Later in the year, the Finnish
business that was struggling eventually acknowledged that it was slow to react to the change in the
market, which influenced by newcomers like Samsung, HTC, and LG, and was being taken over from
the likes of Apple and BlackBerry.

The next year, Stephen Elop - who was formerly head of Microsoft's business software office - was
appointed as Nokia's new Mobile Insider CEO. He was also the initial non-Finnish leader of the firm.
Although 2010 found a rise in profits for the business, job cuts continued.
Elop became renowned for a speech that he delivered to Nokia employees in early 2011, wherein he
compared the business's market position to a guy standing on a "burning platform." Quite obviously,
the situation of the company was going from bad to worse.
Determined compete with competitors and better to come from the ongoing catastrophe, Nokia
announced a strategic partnership to make the Windows Phone of the latter its primary mobile OS.
Following the statement, there were rumors that Microsoft is in talks to get the Finnish giant that is
struggling. However, at that time, Elop rubbished them as "baseless."
The first fruit the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft bore were Lumia 710 smartphones and
the Lumia 800, which were pronounced later in 2011.
Job cuts continued although the firm managed to beat market expectations by selling over a million
units of the devices in only a couple of months. Meanwhile, in an attempt to save more expenses, the
organization also announced that it will shut its oldest factory in Finland and change its
manufacturing to Asia, which had become its biggest market by then - all of this happened in early
2012.
Despite decent sales, the brand new Windows Phone devices couldn't do much for Nokia in Q1,
2012, when the business suffered an operating loss of a whopping EUR1.3 billion. It was followed by
another round of job reductions, changing around 10,000 employees this time.
After that year, the company established Windows Mobile 8-powered Lumia 920 flagship, which
received mixed reviews - mainly criticized for its big size as well as bulkiness. In November 2012,
the smartphone became best selling phone of the week on Amazon, and also topped Expansys' chart
in britain during precisely the same period - it never quite reached the smash sales the business
needed to go back to profitability.
Finally, the year 2013 brought some good news as Nokia returned to profit six quarters of money
that was bleeding. However, revenue dropped considerably owing to the company's failure to create
any dent in the smartphone marketplace.
In September that year, Nokia announced it is selling its Devices & Services department to
Microsoft.
The sale formally finished in April 2014.
Judgment
The unwillingness to embrace radical change when it was needed the most of the Finnish firm was
probably the greatest reason that brought the mobile giant down. The firm took way too long when it
finally did it made way way too many mistakes in its strategy and to embrace the revolution that was
smartphone.
First, Nokia tried to compete by simply adding touch to the heritage Symbian - a patch that did not
deliver the fluid user experience of its own opponents at that time. Then the switch to Windows

Phone was pronounced way before there was real hardware ready - a move that developer interest
will be boosted by Elop expected, but ended up largely killing Symbian sales 7 months before Nokia
had an alternative to offer. Two mistakes of this magnitude, along with the great delay in jumping to
touchscreen were enough to cost the business 's dominant position in the marketplace that is quickly
moving.
Yet, that doesn't take away the fact that Nokia stays a tremendous part of mobile phone history that
will never be forgotten.