Up To Date - Everything You Need to Know about Nokia
Nokia is a Finnish company started by Fredrik Idestam, Leo Mechelin, and Eduard Polón. The company was founded in 1865 in Tampere, Grand Duchy of Finland in 1865. The company produced consumer paper products.
In the late 1800s Nokia moved into electricity generation. In the 20's Nokia and Finnish Rubber Works entered into a partnership with the Cable Factory. The goal of this partnership was to manufacture electrical cables.
In the 1960's Nokia AB, Finnish Rubber Works, and the Cable Factory merged to create Nokia Inc. They began manufacturing communication radios, military equipment, respirators, gas masks, chemicals, telephone switches etc ... Nokia became a major trade asset with the Soviet Union due to Finland's trade agreement with the USSR.
In 1970's under the leadership of Kari Kairamo Nokia transformed itself. Nokia purchased technology companies like Salora and Luxor. This added television and computer and computer development and manufacturing to Nokia's repertoire. This made Nokia the third largest television manufacturer in Europe.
In the 80's Nokia began purchasing telecommunication assets like Germany's Standard Elektrik Lorenz SEL included brands that were part of the US conglomerate International Telephone & Telegraph. In 1988 Nokia acquired Ericcson's Information Systems. Nokia also began working on the GSM standard with Siemens.
Nokia 8810 advertisement
On to the 90's to what most people in the US know about Nokia. Nokia began building telecommunications technology for cellular networks. They also began manufacturing cellular radios for phones. In 1991 the first GSM cellular phone call used Nokia's equipment. The first Nokia GSM phone was released in 1992 called the 1011. It had a base price of 234 GBP2 ($686 in 2021 US currency). In the US the big Nokia phone releases were the Nokia 3110 series (1997), 3210 series (1999), the 8110 Matrix phone (1996 ... also known as the banana phone), 5110 (1998). All these phones had a high price tag when they released, but dropped in price fast. In 1998 Nokia and Psion co-founded Symbian. It was started with the goal of creating pocket computing devices.
Nokia N95 advertisement
In the 2000's Nokia continued to release standard phones like the ones that they released in the 90's. They also created unique mobile phones designed more for style rather than function. A few examples are the Nokia 3650, and the Nokia 7280. Nokia also released smartphones based on the Symbian OS. These phones were the media focused N series, the business E series, and the XpressMusic series. Nokia also released several phones in the 6000 series that were Symbian based phones. Some of the most popular symbian of the early 2000's were the Nokia N73, N80ie, N85, N95, E90 5320 XpressMusic, and the 6720. Nokia also developed several tablets using Maemo, a Linux based OS. The Nokia 770, N800, N810, and the N900 development model all used Maemo. Maemo got rolled into the MeeGo Linux OS. It ran on the Nokia N900 (the N900, N950, and N9 are the only Nokia devices running MeeGo).
In 2007 Apple released the Apple iPhone, and this put pressure on Nokia, Sony, HTC and Samsung. Nokia and Sony's smartphones used on Symbian. Sony and HTC's smartphones used Windows mobile and Linux. In 2008 Google's Android debuted on the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1). This added more pressure to the Symbian and Windows Mobile phone makers. HTC, who already released the Dream Android phone, Sony and Samsung changed to Android. Nokia had the opportunity to switch from Symbian to Android. They decided to double down on Maemo. This pulled resources from the Symbian OS development team. Nokia released the Nokia X series and C series Symbian based phones.
Nokia N8 advertisement
In 2010 Nokia released the Nokia N8, and the E7 communicator. These phones use the Symbian^3 operating system. This was Nokia's answer to the iPhone and Android phones. In early 2011 Nokia released the Nokia 600, 700, and 701. In February 2011 Nokia entered into a partnership with Microsoft. Nokia was looking for a replacement for Symbian, and Microsoft needed a manufacturer. Nokia also announced the discontinuation of the Symbian OS to focus on MeeGo. The Nokia N9 released later in June 2011. It was discontinued in September 2011.
Nokia N9 advertisement
In 2012 Nokia began releasing Lumia mobile phones for Microsoft. The first Lumia phones were the Nokia 710, 800 and 900. The 800 and 900 used the polycarbonate design from the Nokia N9. Nokia produced 35 phones between mid-2011 and the end of 2014. Nokia sold their mobile phone division to Microsoft in 2014.
Nokia Lumia 920 advertisement
In 2016 rumors abound about the return of Nokia. As the year continued HMD global announced that they licensed the Nokia name. In 2017 the Nokia name returned to the mobile phone market. Now making Android phones they have cranked out great phones across in each of the major markets. Budget phones like the 1, 2, and 3 series, mid-range phones like 5 and 6 series, and the high end 7, 8, and 9series. They have also released some nostalgic classic phones like the Nokia 8110 and the 3310. Some of the most notable releases from the new Nokia are the 9 PureView, 8 Sirocco, 7 Plus, and the 8.1.
Nokia 8 Sirocco advertisement
Nokia is still involved in industrial manufacturing, cable manufacturing, and telephone equipment manufacturing. They are a major provider of 5G cellular transceivers. They are also still making phones through their license with HMD Global. Nokia will likely continue to manufacture telecom and industrial goods well into the future. As for HMD Global’s release of Nokia phones only time will tell. The phones are reasonably popular and as long as that continues the HMD will have no problems continuing the Nokia line.
