Today everything is Apple, Samsung, Huawei or Xiaomi, but between 1996 and 2008, the king was Nokia. They were not the first, but they made a place in our pocket.
In Tampere, the third city by population of Finland, Nokia was born, one of the most important companies in Finland, a European and global icon of mobile telephony that dominated the market for more than a decade, literally, and that although today not in the top ranks still struggling to make a place in a competitive smartphone market.
But it didn’t all start with mobile phones. At first it was paper. Then came rubber, cable, electronics, and from there to radio communication, computers, and televisions. And is that although the home user associates Nokia with mobile phones, its catalog has been more extensive for years.
Nokia’s first stage
In 1865, half-Swedish, half-Finnish mining engineer Fredrik Idestam set up a pulp mill near Tampere, Finland. After three years, a second factory will open in the town of Nokia company, near the first factory. And in 1871, Idestam convinces his friend Leo Mechelin to create a company, Nokia Ab in Swedish, Nokia Company in English, dedicated to the manufacture of cellulose or paper pulp.
Idestam will withdraw from the company in 1896, which in the hands of Mechelin will expand the range of products nothing and more and nothing less than with the generation of electricity, which will allow it to enter the rubber business (1922) by associating itself with the Finnish Suomen Gummitehdas (Finnish Rubber Factory), and in the cable business by partnering with Kaapelitehdas (Cable Factory), both based near Nokia.
Paper, rubber, cables… In this first stage, Nokia also manufactured respirators for civil and military use, a line of business that began in the 1930s and did not end until the 1990s.
From the radio to the phone
In 1967, Nokia, Gummitehdas and Kaapelitehdas decide to merge into what will be called Nokia Corporation. Its four axes of action: forestry, cable, rubber and electronics. In this second stage, Nokia is not yet the company associated with the Connecting people motto, but things are not bad for it.
In the 1970s, for example, it expanded its business areas by entering the radio and network communication industry. From here will emerge communication devices, mobile radio systems, the popular walkie talkies, telephone switches.
In 1977, the Finnish Kari Kairamo took over the reins of Nokia as CEO and acquired different companies, such as the Finnish television manufacturer Salora (1984), the Swedish computer manufacturer Luxor AB (1985), or the French television manufacturer Oceanic (1987). ). As a result, Nokia will be the third largest European television manufacturer, second only to Philips and Thomson. Nokia will continue to make televisions until 1996.
At this buying stage, Nokia will also acquire computer manufacturers, such as Ericsson’s computer division. Thus, Nokia will have its own line of personal computers, MikroMikko (1981). And thirdly, Nokia will take over Mobira, the mobile phone company responsible for the first international mobile network. Another of its milestones is the Mobira Senator, a mobile phone for cars and, technically, it is Nokia’s first phone.
Mobile telephony
The 90s did not start very well for Nokia. With a new CEO, Simo Vuorilehto, the giant Nokia, with eleven business areas, decides to restructure to be more efficient. As a result, it will divest its vehicle tire division (Nokia Tires) and sell Nokia Data, its computer division.
In 1992, Jorma Olilla, who had been in charge of the mobile business line, takes over. Hence their goal is to turn Nokia into a telecommunications company. And as a first step, Nokia will be part of the development team for the European GSM standard, from which the GPRS and EDGE technologies, the second generation of mobile communication protocols, will emerge.
Hence the first GSM-compatible Nokia phones will emerge and flood the market. Nokia 1011 will be the first (1992), but the 2010 (1994) and 2110 (1994) models will be coming soon. The latter will be the first to feature Nokia’s famous ringtone, the Gran Waltz guitar solo.
But the one that will take the first place in sales for the first time will be the Nokia 1610, with more than 100 million units sold in 1996. Mono-color screen, two lines of text on the screen, 250 grams of weight, a small antenna and a battery nickel 600 mAh. The bases that will make Nokia mobile phones popular can be seen in this model: small size, light weight, long battery life, easy to handle, good coverage.
Nokia’s success, model by model
During the next 15 years or so, Nokia will take over the list of best-selling mobile phones with models like the 1998 Nokia 6120 (USA version of the 6110 model), with games, calculator, clock, alarm, calendar, currency converter …
In 1999 the king will be the Nokia 3210, the first mobile phone on the market with an integrated antenna inside the phone, weighing 151 grams and the ideal size to fit in the hand and in any pocket. Its design will set a trend in the following models, and although it was intended for professional use, it will also work well in the home market, among other things because of the possibility of composing your own ringtones. Specifically, it is the fourth best-selling phone in history, only surpassed by the Nokia 1100, Nokia 1110 and the iPhone 6.
In the year 2000, two Nokia models will stand out, the Nokia 3310, heir to the 3210, and which added a chat function to the SMS function with the possibility of sending longer messages. It also included a calculator, reminders, and four games, including the second version of the popular Snake. In 2000 the Nokia 8850 would also work very well, adding a slide-out keyboard protector to the classic design.
In 2002 the Nokia 6100, 6610 and 3510 will triumph. With GPRS technology, the 6100 weighed only 76 grams, had an interchangeable case and a 128 × 128 pixel 12-bit color LCD screen. Inside, infrared port and polyphonic tones. For its part, the Nokia 6610 will be one of the first to have Java support. In addition, it includes a WAP browser, stereo FM radio and a color screen. Similar in performance will also be the 3510, which also allowed sending and receiving MMS.
2003 will be the year of the Nokia 1100 , the best-selling mobile phone in history, among other things because it is the company’s cheapest so far, 86 grams of weight, one-color screen, flashlight, alarm, calculator, interchangeable covers, etc. Designed for developing countries, the keyboard and screen layout was designed to withstand dust and water in harsh conditions.
That same year, Nokia will try its luck with its hybrid phone, half mobile phone half portable video game console, Nokia N-Gage. However, it was not as successful as a Game Boy Advance competition and was discontinued in 2005.
Until the launch of the second iPhone in 2008, Nokia will continue to be the leading mobile phone maker, with several models among the best sellers, and with competition at a certain distance, with Motorola and Sony Ericsson as its main rivals.
The history of Nokia from the launch of the iPhone and the sector’s commitment to Android gives for another article, where we will see how Microsoft revolutionizes the company in an attempt to gain a foothold in the sector.
The Nokia logo
The Nokia logo is easily recognizable: its name in dark blue letters. But it was not always like this. Its first logo , from 1865, consisted of a circular sign from which a fish stands out, supposedly a salmon, in honor of the Nokianvirta River, close to the town of Nokia and which gives the company its name. The logo will be slightly changed a century later, in 1965, with the same fish.
For his part, Finnish Rubber Works, associated with Nokia and dedicated to rubber, will have a similar logo to a wheel with the Nokia name in the center. It will not be until 1967 that the name Nokia appears alone in the logo, in blue letters with three black arrows in its upper right corner in reference to the three companies that were part of the renewed Nokia Corporation.
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