Nokia can trace its roots back to 1865 and a pulp mill in south-west Finland.

A century and a
half later, Nokia's handset business is being bought by Microsoft for 5.44bn after a troubled
few years for the mobile phone giant. Here we track Nokia's rise, and subsequent fall.
1865: Mining engineer Fredrik Idestam sets up a wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids
in south-western Finland.
1871: The Nokia name is born, inspired by the Nokianvirta river on the banks of which
Idestam opens a second mill.
1898: Eduard Poln founds Finnish Rubber Works, which later becomes Nokia's rubber
business, making everything from rubber boots to tyres. Nokia wellies are still made today,
though not by the telecoms company.
1912: Arvid Wickstrm sets up Finnish Cable Works, the foundation of Nokia's cable and
electronics business.
1967: The official merger of Nokia Ab, Finnish Cable Works and Finnish Rubber.
1979: Nokia creates radio telephone company Mobira Oy as a joint venture with leading
Finnish TV maker Salora.
1981: Launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone service, the world's first international cellular
network, and the first to allow international roaming.
1982: Nokia introduces the first car phone the Mobira Senator to the network. That same
year, the Nokia DX200, the company's first digital telephone switch, goes into operation.
1984: Nokia launches the Mobira Talkman portable car phone a chunky piece of kit but a
start.
1987: Nokia introduces the Mobira Cityman, the first handheld mobile phone. It weighs in at
800g and comes with a price tag of 24,000 Finnish Marks (about 3,400). The Soviet leader,
Mikhail Gorbachev, is pictured using one to make a call from Helsinki to his communications
minister in Moscow.
1991: The Finnish prime minister, Harri Holkeri, makes the world's first "global system for
mobile communications" call, using Nokia equipment.
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1992: Nokia launches its first digital handheld GSM phone, the Nokia 1011. The Nokia
president and chief executive, Jorma Ollila, decides to focus on mobile phones and
telecommunications, and the process begins of selling off its rubber, cable and consumer
electronics divisions.
1994: Nokia launches the 2100 series, the first phones to feature the Nokia Tune ringtone. It
goes on to sell 20m phones worldwide in the 2100 series. Nokia's target had been 400,000.

1998: Nokia becomes the world leader in the mobile phones market.
1996-2001: Nokia's turnover increases almost fivefold from 6.5bn to 31bn.
1999: Nokia launches the Nokia 7110, a phone capable of rudimentary web-based functions,
including email. It uses the Orange network to access the internet using Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP).
2000: Nokia does a deal with music publisher EMI enabling users to choose their favourite
tunes as their ringtones.
2001: Nokia launches its first phone with a built-in camera, the Nokia 7650. But a profits
warning, blamed on a slowdown in the mobile market, stuns investors. It announces plans to
cut 1,000 jobs, but things start to look up by the end of the year.
2002: Nokia launches its first video capture phone, the Nokia 3650. It also launches its first
3G phone, the Nokia 6650. With 3G technology, phones can now be used to browse the web,
download music, watch TV on the move, and more.
2004: Nokia reveals that although it is still the market leader it is losing share to its rivals,
with its 35% share comparing with a target of 40% as it falls behind with its new product
range.
2005: Nokia sells its billionth phone a Nokia 1100 in Nigeria, and global mobile phone
subscriptions pass 2bn.
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2007: Nokia is forced into one of the world's largest product recalls after it admits the
batteries in 46m phones could be faulty. Meanwhile, a longer-term problem emerges: Apple
launches the iPhone.
2008: Nokia reports a 30% fall in third-quarter profits. Nokia smartphone sales fall by 3.1%
during the quarter, while sales of Apple iPhones grow by 327.5%.
2009: Nokia announces plans to cut 1,700 jobs worldwide as the recession hits mobile phone
sales. Nokia admits it was slow to react to the rise of new devices such as the iPhone and
plans to fight back. But it is too late to avoid the first loss in more than a decade.
2010: Competitors such as the iPhone and Android-based devices are posing a serious
challenge to Nokia's future. It appoints former Microsoft man Stephen Elop as president and
chief executive. Nokia cuts a further 1,800 jobs despite a rise in profits.
2011: Elop warns staff "we are standing on a burning platform", and announces a strategic
partnership with Microsoft days later to compete with Apple and Google's Android platform.
Nokia cuts a further 4,000 jobs worldwide from its 65,000-strong workforce. Elop denies it is
in talks about a takeover by Microsoft. Nokia is overtaken by Samsung and Apple in the
smartphone sector as profits and sales dwindle. Nokia launches new smartphones.

2012: Nokia cuts 4,000 jobs and moves smartphone manufacturing to Asia. Shares fall
following a profits warning and it slumps to a 1.3bn loss. Analysts foresee a possible
takeover by Microsoft as it cuts 10,000 more jobs and announces its last factory in Finland
will close.
2013: Nokia returns to profit after an 18-month spell of losses. Microsoft buys Nokia's
handset business for 5.44bn (4.6bn).

Humble beginnings
While Nokia may remind most of us of only mobile phones, the company in fact
started out as a paper mill, which was established in 1865 by mining engineer
Fredrik Idestam at the Tammerkoski Rapids in south-western Finland.

However, the name Nokia wasnt yet born. It was the location of his second mill - 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 company
also ventured into electricity generation.
Meanwhile, Eduard Poln founded Finnish Rubber Works in 1898, and Arvid
Wickstrm established Finnish Cable Works in 1912. In 1918, Finnish Rubber Works
acquired Nokia to secure access to the latters hydro-power resources, and in 1922,
Finnish Cable Works was also acquired by the newly formed conglomerate.
While the three companies were jointly owned, they continued to work independently
until 1967, when they were finally merged and Nokia Corporation was born. The
newly formed company mainly focused on four markets: paper, electronics, rubber,
and cable. It developed things like toilet paper, bicycle and car tires, rubber footwear,
TVs, communication cables, robotics, PCs, and military equipment, among others.
Portfolio expansion

In 1979, Nokia entered into a joint venture with leading Scandinavian color TV
manufacturer Salora to create Mobira Oy, a radio telephone company. A few years
later, Nokia launched the world's first international cellular system dubbed Nordic
Mobile Telephone network, which linked Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
This was followed by the launch of the companys as well as worlds first car-phone
dubbed Mobira Senator, which weighed in at around 10 kg.

In 1984, Nokia acquired Salora and changed the name of its telecommunications
unit to Nokia-Mobira Oy. The year also marked the launch of Mobira Talkman, which
was advertised as one of the first transportable phones. This means it could be used
both in and out of car, although it was still around 5kg.

Three years later, the company introduced its first compact phone called Mobira
Cityman 900, which was also the world's first hand-held mobile telephone. Despite
weighing around 800g and carrying a price tag of around $5,456, it sold like hot
cakes.

The phone became iconic and was nicknamed The Gorba after the then Soviet
Union president Mikhail Gorbachev used it to to make a call from Helsinki to Moscow
during a press conference in October 1987.

The following year brought a tough phase for the company as it witnessed sharp
drop in profits owing to severe price competition in the consumer electronics
markets, and its chairman Kari Kairamo committed suicide reportedly due to stress.
The new leadership brought changes, dividing the company into six units:
telecommunications, consumer electronics, cables and machinery, data, mobile

phones, and basic industries, while divesting other units like flooring, paper, rubber,
and ventilation systems. In 1989, Nokia-Mobira Oy became Nokia Mobile Phones.
Change in focus - mobile phones
In 1990s, Nokias top leadership decided to focus solely on the telecommunications
market, and as a result, the companys data, power, television, tire, and cable units
were sold off in the first few years of the decade.
In 1991, worlds first GSM call was made by the then Finnish prime minister, Harri
Holkeri. Unsurprisingly, it was made using Nokia equipment. The next year, the
companys first hand-held GSM phone Nokia 1011 was launched.

The device reportedly had a talk time of 90 minutes and could store 99 contact
numbers. It was also known as Mobira Cityman 2000.
A couple of years later, the company launched its 2100 series of phones, which were
also the first to feature the iconic Nokia Tune ringtone. While Nokia projected to sell
400,000 units, the series turned out to be a blockbuster with around 20 million
handsets sold worldwide.

In 1996, Nokia 9000 Communicator was launched. The all-in-one phone, which
carried a price tag of $800, allowed users to send emails, fax, and browse web,
besides offering word processing and spreadsheet capabilities. Although the phone
managed to create a dedicated following, it wasn't commercially successful..

In the same year, the company also launched the Nokia 8110 slider phone.
Nicknamed "banana phone", the device featured in the popular 1999 science fiction
action film The Matrix.

World leader
The spectacular success of Nokias 6100 series - the company sold nearly 41 million
cellular phones in 1998 - helped the company surpass Motorola and become the
worlds top cellular phone maker in that year. It's worth mentioning that the Nokia
6110 was the first phone that came with the classic Snake game pre-installed.

Nokias net sales increased over 50% year-on-year, operating profits shot up nearly
75%, and stock price sky-rocketed a whopping 220%, resulting in an increase of
market capitalization from nearly $21 billion to around $70 billion.
The year 1998 also saw the company launching the Nokia 8810, its first phone
without an external antenna. The flagship was also one of the Nokias first phones
with chrome slider shell.

The next year saw the company launching the Nokia 3210. It was a solid handset
that came in six color variants and had a talk time of the impressive for the time 4- 5
hours.

In addition to offering extra ringtones and games, the device also allowed users to
send pre-installed picture messages (like Happy Birthday) via SMSs. Around 160
million units of the handsets were sold, making it one of the most popular and
successful phones in history.
The 2000s - a new era
Although Nokia was the world leader in the mobile phones market, the new decade
brought along a new set of challenges for the company. The wireless and Internet
technologies were converging, and the 3rd generation of wireless technology - that
promised enhanced multimedia capability - was evolving.

Responding to the changes, the Finnish company started churning out both
sophisticated multimedia handsets as well as low-end devices. The year 2001 saw
the company launching the Nokia 7650, its first phone to feature a built-in camera. It
was also the first to sport a full color display.

This was followed by the launch of its (as well as the worlds) first 3G phone, the
Nokia 6650, in 2002.

The same year, the company also launched the Nokia 3650, the first Symbian Series
60 device to appear in the US market. It was also Nokias first phone to feature a
video recorder.

In 2003, the company launched 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 also the
companys billionth phone sold later in 2005.

The year 2003 also saw the launch of the companys unorthodox-looking N-Gage
device. Running Symbian OS 6.1 (Series 60), the phone/hand-held gaming system
wasnt much successful commercially as only 3 million units were sold.

The following year, the Nokia 7280 "lipstick" phone was launched. Part of the
companys "Fashion Phone" line, the device was listed as one of the best products of
the year by Fortune Magazine. It also featured in the Pussycat Dolls' "Beep" music
video.

Midway through the decade, the company launched its N-series of phones, with the
N70, N90, and N91 being the first members of the series. The flagship N8 was
launched later in 2010.

With Apple launching its first-generation iPhone in 2007 and the growing popularity
of touch-screen phones, Nokia outed its first all touch smartphone in 2008. Dubbed
the 5800 Xpress Music, the device was also the first to run the touch-driven Symbian
v9.4 (S60 5th Edition). It was decently successful as the company managed to sell
around 8 million units of the device, but it didn't manage to create die-hard following
as it touch-experience was sub-par.

Early hiccups and the epic fall

It was the year 2001, when Nokias profits first crumbled after becoming the top
phone maker in the world. This was primarily due to a slowdown in mobile phone
market. That downfall turned out to be short-lived, but three years later, in 2004, the
company again reported that its market share is sliding, despite still leading with the
solid 35%.
Another hiccup came in 2007, when the company had to recall a whopping 46 million
faulty cell-phone batteries. Whats even worse was that the batteries - which were
manufactured between 2005-end and 2006-end - appeared in a wide range of Nokia
phones, which meant that a large part of the companys device portfolio was
affected.
In 2008 - the same year when the Android version 1.0 was launched - Nokias Q3
profits nosedived 30%, while sales decreased 3.1%. On the other hand, iPhone
sales sky-rocketed by around 330% during the same period.
The year 2009 saw Nokia laying off 1,700 employees worldwide. Later in the year,
the struggling Finnish company finally acknowledged that it was slow to react to the

change in the market, which was now slowly being taken over by the likes of Apple
and BlackBerry, and influenced by newcomers like Samsung, HTC, and LG.
The following year, Stephen Elop - who was previously head of Microsoft's business
software division - was appointed as Nokias new CEO. He was also the first nonFinnish leader of the company. Although 2010 saw a rise in profits for the company,
job cuts continued.
Elop became famous for a speech that he delivered to Nokia employees in early
2011, wherein he compared the companys market position to a man standing on a
"burning platform." Quite evidently, the companys situation was going from bad to
worse.
Desperate to come out of the ongoing crisis and better compete with competitors,
Nokia announced a strategic partnership with software giant Microsoft to make the
latters Windows Phone its primary mobile OS.
Following the announcement, there were rumors that Microsoft is in talks to acquire
the struggling Finnish giant. However, at that point in time, Elop rubbished them as
baseless. Meanwhile, Apple overtook Nokia in smartphone sales in Q2, 2011.
The first fruit the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft bore were the Lumia 800
and Lumia 710 smartphones, which were announced later in 2011. While the former
(shown below) targeted the higher end of the market, the latter was aimed at lower
end-customers.

Although the company managed to beat market expectations by selling over a million
units of these devices in just a few months, job cuts continued. Meanwhile, in an
effort to save more expenses, the company also announced that it will close its
oldest factory in Finland and shift its manufacturing to Asia, which had become its
largest market by then - all of this happened in early 2012.
Despite decent sales, the new Windows Phone devices couldnt do much for Nokia
in Q1, 2012, when the company suffered an operating loss of a whopping 1.3

billion. This was followed by another round of job cuts, affecting around 10,000
employees this time.
Later that year, the company launched Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 920
flagship, which received mixed reviews - mainly criticized for its large size and
bulkiness. In November 2012, the smartphone became best-selling phone of the
week on Amazon, and also topped Expansys' chart in the UK during the same period
- still it never quite reached the blockbuster sales the company needed to return to
profitability.

Finally, the year 2013 brought some good news as Nokia returned to profit six
quarters of bleeding money. However, revenue dropped considerably owing to the
companys failure to make any dent in the smartphone market.
In September that year, Nokia announced its selling its Devices & Services division
to Microsoft.

The deal, which saw CEO Stephen Elop return to Microsoft, also included the
Finnish company's patents and mapping services, although it excluded the Nokias
Chennai factory in India as well as the Masan factory in South Korea. The sale
officially completed in April 2014.
Conclusion
The Finnish companys unwillingness to embrace drastic change when it was
required the most was probably the biggest reason that brought the mobile giant
down. The company took way too long to embrace the smartphone revolution and
when it finally did it made way too many errors in its strategy.
First, Nokia tried to compete by simply adding touch to the legacy Symbian - a patch
that failed to deliver the fluid user experience of its rivals at the time. Then the switch
to Windows Phone was announced way before there was actual hardware ready - a

move that Elop hoped will boost developer interest, but ended up mostly killing
Symbian sales 7 months before Nokia had an alternative to offer. Two mistakes of
that magnitude, combined with the great delay in jumping to touchscreen were
enough to cost the company's dominant position in the quickly moving market.
Anyway, as they say, nothing is permanent and whatever goes up must come down.
However, that doesnt take away the fact that Nokia remains a huge part of mobile
phone history that will never be forgotten.