Nokia Timeline

Nokia 43

1865 Nokia founded as paper mill Fredrik Idestam founds a wood pulp mill on the Nokianvirta river in southern Finland in 1865, naming it Nokia Ab after the river. The mill produces paper for the rapidly expanding Finnish printing industry. A second mill follows in 1868. The Nokia name comes from the river, which may derive from the Finnish word for the dark, furry European mink once native to the riverbanks. The connection between a 19th-century Finnish paper mill and the mobile phone that will define an era is almost impossible to imagine.
1871 Nokia becomes a public company Nokia Ab becomes a public limited company in 1871 — one of the first Finnish companies to do so. The Finnish paper industry is booming as literacy rates rise across Europe and demand for printed materials grows. Nokia's mills on the Nokianvirta river are among the most modern in Scandinavia. The public listing gives Nokia access to capital markets that will fund its subsequent diversification into rubber and cables.
1898 Nokia enters rubber business Nokia expands into rubber products, establishing the Finnish Rubber Works in 1898 — making galoshes, tyres, raincoats and rubber boots. The iconic Nokia rubber boot becomes a beloved Finnish product still sold today. By the mid-20th century Nokia is a conglomerate of three separate listed companies: Nokia Ab (paper), Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable Works. The cable division will prove the crucial bridge to electronics.
1912 Finnish Cable Works founded The Finnish Cable Works is established in Helsinki in 1912 — initially producing telephone and telegraph cables for Finland's rapidly expanding telecommunications network. The cable business gives Nokia engineers hands-on experience with electrical signal transmission. It is this division that will eventually evolve into Nokia's electronics and later telecommunications capabilities. Without the cable works, there is no path from paper mill to mobile phone company.
1960 Nokia enters electronics The Finnish Cable Works establishes an electronics department in 1960, beginning work on radio telephones and computers. Nokia's first electronic product is a pulse analyser for nuclear power plants. The electronics division grows steadily through the 1960s, eventually producing Finland's first desktop computer in 1965. These early electronics efforts are the embryo from which Nokia's mobile phone business will eventually grow.
1967 Nokia Corporation formed by merger The three Nokia companies — Nokia Ab, Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable Works — merge into a single Nokia Corporation in 1967. The combined company has revenues of 357 million Finnish marks and 7,000 employees. CEO Björn Westerlund sets a strategic direction toward electronics and communications — a pivot that will define Nokia's future. The merger creates the administrative structure needed to manage what will become one of the world's most dramatic corporate transformations.
1969 Nokia builds Finland's first computer Nokia's electronics division produces the Mikko 1 — one of Finland's first commercially manufactured computers, used for industrial control applications. Nokia also manufactures television sets under licence and begins producing radio equipment for the Finnish military and broadcasting sector. The company is now recognisably a technology business, though its rubber and paper divisions still generate most of its revenue.
1979 Mobira Oy — Nokia enters mobile telephony Nokia and Finnish state telecom company Salora establish Mobira Oy — a joint venture to develop mobile telephones for the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) network, the world's first international cellular network launching in 1981. Nokia's first mobile phone, the Mobira Senator car phone, launches in 1982. It weighs 9.8 kg. The path from this 10-kilogram car phone to the slim Nokia 3310 will take less than twenty years.
1981 Nordic Mobile Telephone network launches The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) network — the world's first automatic international mobile phone network — launches across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland in 1981. Nokia supplies handsets and network equipment. NMT is the precursor to GSM and the foundation of Nokia's mobile expertise. The network's international roaming capability — radical for its time — foreshadows the global mobile ecosystem that Nokia will eventually dominate.
1984 Nokia acquires Salora and Luxor Nokia acquires Finnish television manufacturer Salora and Swedish electronics company Luxor, significantly expanding its consumer electronics operations. Nokia is now one of the largest consumer electronics companies in Scandinavia, making televisions, computers, monitors and telecommunications equipment. The acquisitions make Nokia briefly the largest Scandinavian information technology company.
1987 Nokia Cityman — Gorbachev's phone Nokia launches the Mobira Cityman 900 — a truly handheld mobile phone weighing 800 grams. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is famously photographed using one in Helsinki, generating enormous publicity. The "Gorba phone" becomes Nokia's first globally recognised product. At 24,000 Finnish marks — equivalent to a small car — it is firmly a luxury item, but it proves the concept of a truly portable mobile phone for ordinary use.
1988 Nokia acquires Tandy's consumer electronics — near disaster Nokia acquires Tandy Corporation's consumer electronics manufacturing operations for $30 million, gaining factories in South Korea, the US and UK. The acquisition proves a financial drain: Nokia loses money on consumer electronics for years. CEO Kari Kairamo, under pressure from the losses and overexpansion, takes his own life in December 1988. The crisis forces Nokia to reconsider its diversified conglomerate strategy and accelerates the pivot to mobile phones.
1990 – 2010 The Rise of Nokia Tech Boom The period when Nokia became the worlds leading mobile phone maker, transforming the Finnish economy.
1992 Jorma Ollila becomes CEO — focus on mobile only Jorma Ollila becomes Nokia CEO in January 1992 and makes the most consequential strategic decision in Finnish corporate history: Nokia will sell everything except mobile phones and telecommunications networks. Over the next three years Nokia divests its paper, rubber, cable, consumer electronics, computer and tyre businesses. The focused company that emerges grows at 25% per year and becomes the fastest-growing company in Europe.
1992 Nokia 1011 — world's first GSM phone Nokia launches the Nokia 1011 on 10 November 1992 — the world's first commercially available GSM mobile phone. GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the digital standard that replaces analogue mobile networks across Europe and eventually most of the world. Nokia's early mastery of GSM gives it a decisive technology advantage. The 1011 establishes the template for Nokia's phone design language: compact, rectangular, with a clear display and tactile keypad.
1994 Nokia 2100 — planned 400,000, sold 20 million The Nokia 2100 launches in 1994 — the first Nokia phone to feature the iconic Nokia ringtone (based on a Francisco Tárrega guitar piece). Nokia plans to sell 400,000 units; it sells 20 million. The 2100 establishes Nokia as a global consumer brand and demonstrates that mobile phones can be mass-market products rather than executive accessories. The Nokia tune becomes one of the most recognised sounds in the world.
1996 Nokia 9000 Communicator — first smartphone concept Nokia launches the Nokia 9000 Communicator — a clamshell device combining a mobile phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, email, fax and web browsing. At $800, it is aimed at business users. The Communicator is Nokia's first "smartphone" concept and demonstrates that Nokia understood the direction of mobile computing years before the iPhone. Its failure to develop this concept into a mainstream platform is one of the great missed opportunities in technology history.
1997 Nokia 6110 — Snake game launched The Nokia 6110 launches in 1997, pre-installed with the game Snake — a simple game where the player guides a growing line around the screen eating dots. Snake becomes one of the most-played video games in history, reaching over 350 million Nokia phones. It is the first mobile gaming phenomenon and demonstrates the potential of the mobile phone as an entertainment device. Snake's cultural impact far outlasts Nokia's dominance of the mobile phone market.
1998 Nokia becomes world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia overtakes Motorola to become the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer in 1998 — selling 41 million handsets and holding 23% of the global market. The achievement results from Ollila's strategic focus, Nokia's mastery of GSM technology, and its ability to design phones that feel good to hold and are easy to use. Nokia's market share will peak at 40% in 2008 — an extraordinary dominance of a global consumer market.
1999 Nokia 3210 — design for the masses The Nokia 3210 launches in 1999 — the first Nokia phone without an external antenna, with a sleek rounded design and interchangeable covers. It sells 160 million units, making it one of the best-selling mobile phones in history. The 3210's design philosophy — that a mobile phone should be desirable as well as functional — becomes the template for the entire industry. Nokia's design team in Helsinki is arguably the best consumer product design team in the world in the late 1990s.
2000 Nokia peaks — most valuable company in Europe At the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Nokia's market capitalisation reaches €250 billion — making it the most valuable company in Europe. Nokia accounts for 4% of Finland's GDP, 21% of Finnish exports and 70% of the Helsinki Stock Exchange's total market cap. The company employs 60,000 people globally. In retrospect, this is the peak from which everything unravels — though the decline takes another decade to become obvious.
2000 Nokia 3310 — the indestructible phone The Nokia 3310 launches in September 2000. Selling 126 million units, it becomes the most iconic mobile phone in history — renowned for its battery life, durability and the addictive Snake game. Its cultural impact is enormous: the phrase "Nokia 3310 vs. [anything]" becomes shorthand for indestructibility. When Nokia relaunches a modernised version in 2017, the announcement generates worldwide media coverage driven entirely by nostalgia.
2002 Nokia 7650 — first Nokia camera phone Nokia launches the Nokia 7650 in 2002 — the first Nokia phone with a built-in camera and the Symbian Series 60 operating system. The camera phone concept fundamentally changes photography. Nokia's camera phones are among the best quality available; the Nokia N95 (2007) with its 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens is considered the finest camera phone before the iPhone. Nokia sees the camera phone's potential but fatally fails to develop a modern smartphone platform around it.
2003 Symbian — internal warnings begin Internal Nokia documents later revealed show that engineers warned management as early as 2003–2004 that Symbian — Nokia's mobile operating system — was becoming dangerously outdated. The warnings are ignored. Nokia's success is so overwhelming that changing the operating system appears unnecessary and risky. This failure to act on internal warnings about Symbian is the central cause of Nokia's subsequent collapse.
2005 Nokia N-series — multimedia phones peak Nokia launches the N-series — multimedia smartphones featuring cameras, GPS, WiFi and music players. The Nokia N95 (2007) becomes the best-regarded camera phone in the world. But the hardware excellence masks a software crisis: Symbian's application development process is so complex that only 6,000 apps exist for it, compared to hundreds of thousands that will be available for iPhone's App Store. Nokia's hardware engineers are brilliant; its software platform is failing.
2007 Apple launches iPhone — Nokia misses the shift Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone on 9 January 2007. Nokia's internal response is dismissive: the iPhone has no keyboard, poor battery life and an unproven touchscreen. Nokia executives note that the iPhone costs $499 — far too expensive to threaten Nokia's mass-market dominance. They are correct about the price and wrong about everything else. Nokia has no credible touchscreen smartphone in development. Its Symbian operating system cannot compete with iOS. The beginning of the end.
2008 Nokia N95 — hardware peak, software crisis The Nokia N95 — featuring a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, GPS, WiFi, 3G and a stunning display in a slider form factor — is arguably the finest hardware Nokia ever makes. Its hardware quality matches or exceeds the iPhone. But its Symbian software is slow, unintuitive and impossible to develop applications for. The N95 perfectly illustrates Nokia's tragedy: world-class hardware engineers, fatally compromised by a failing software platform.
2008 OVI store — too little, too late Nokia launches the Ovi Store in 2008 — its answer to Apple's App Store. The Ovi Store is plagued by technical problems, poor developer tools and a complicated approval process. At launch it offers fewer than 2,000 apps; the Apple App Store has 500,000 within two years. The Ovi Store's failure confirms what engineers had warned for years: Symbian is fundamentally unsuited to the touchscreen smartphone era.
2010 Stephen Elop becomes CEO Stephen Elop — a former Microsoft executive, the first non-Finnish CEO in Nokia's history — takes over as CEO in September 2010. His appointment is controversial from the start; critics later call him a "Trojan horse" for Microsoft. Elop inherits a company losing smartphone market share rapidly to Apple and Android. He commissions an internal review confirming Nokia's software is years behind its competitors.
2011 "Burning platform" memo — abandons Symbian for Windows Phone Stephen Elop sends a leaked internal memo in February 2011 comparing Nokia to a man on a burning oil platform who must jump into the icy sea. He announces Nokia will abandon Symbian for Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. The decision demoralises Nokia engineers, alienates customers and fails to produce competitive products. Analysts later call it the most damaging corporate memo in history. Nokia loses €700 million in 2012 and is downgraded to junk bond status.
2011 Nokia Lumia launched with Windows Phone Nokia launches the Lumia 800 in October 2011 — its first Windows Phone device. The Lumia's design is striking (Nokia's hardware team is still excellent), but Windows Phone has only 35,000 apps vs iOS's 500,000. The app gap proves insurmountable. Despite Nokia selling 30 million Lumia devices over three years, Windows Phone never exceeds 4% global market share. Nokia loses €700 million in 2012 and is downgraded to junk bond status.
2012 Nokia sells headquarters in Espoo Nokia sells its iconic headquarters campus in Espoo to raise cash as losses mount. The sale of Nokia's own headquarters is a powerful symbol of the company's dramatic reversal of fortune. Nokia also cuts dividends and reduces its workforce by thousands. The company that a decade earlier was the most valuable in Europe is now fighting for survival. Shares have fallen 90% from their 2000 peak.
2012 Nokia Lumia 920 — last best hope The Nokia Lumia 920, launched in September 2012, is widely considered Nokia's best Windows Phone and its last genuine attempt at a competitive flagship smartphone. Its optical image stabilisation camera and wireless charging are ahead of their time. But the app gap and Windows Phone's limited ecosystem mean even excellent hardware cannot save it. Nokia's mobile market share has fallen from 40% in 2008 to under 5% by 2012.
2013 Microsoft acquires Nokia's mobile division for €5.44 billion Microsoft acquires Nokia's mobile phone and services division for €5.44 billion — announced September 2013, completed April 2014. Stephen Elop returns to Microsoft. The deal fails catastrophically: Microsoft writes off €7.6 billion on the acquisition in 2015 and lays off 7,800 Nokia employees. The Nokia mobile brand — once the most recognised consumer brand in the world — is effectively dead. Nokia retains its patents and network infrastructure business.
2014 Nokia reinvents itself around networks and patents Nokia, stripped of its handset business, focuses on three assets: HERE maps (sold to German car makers in 2015 for €2.8 billion), a vast patent portfolio generating royalty income, and Nokia Networks. CEO Rajeev Suri restructures around networks. The transformation from mobile phone maker to network equipment provider is painful but ultimately viable. Nokia's patent licensing business — generating over €1 billion annually — is one of the most valuable patent portfolios in technology.
2016 Nokia acquires Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion Nokia completes its €15.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in January 2016, creating one of the world's three largest telecommunications infrastructure companies alongside Ericsson and Huawei. The new Nokia focuses entirely on 4G and 5G network equipment, cloud services and patents. Nokia's Bell Labs — acquired with Alcatel-Lucent — continues fundamental research; previous Bell Labs inventions include the transistor, laser, Unix and C programming language.
2017 Nokia 3310 relaunched — nostalgia goes viral Nokia (through its licensing partner HMD Global) relaunches a modernised Nokia 3310 at Mobile World Congress 2017. The announcement generates extraordinary media coverage — not for its technology (it runs a basic feature phone OS) but for the emotional connection hundreds of millions of people have with the original. The relaunch becomes one of the most effective nostalgia marketing moments in consumer electronics history.
2018 Nokia 5G contracts — Huawei exclusion benefits Nokia Nokia is selected as a 5G network supplier by major carriers across the US, Europe and Asia. US government pressure on allies to exclude Huawei from 5G networks — citing security concerns — directly benefits Nokia and Ericsson. Nokia's 5G business grows rapidly as operators upgrade their networks. For the first time since the mobile phone collapse, Nokia has a genuinely strong market position.
2019 5G profit warnings — technical problems emerge Nokia issues profit warnings as its 5G rollout faces technical problems and cost overruns. Nokia's 5G chips, designed in-house, prove less efficient than Ericsson's and require expensive software updates. Nokia's share price falls 35% and CEO Rajeev Suri eventually resigns in 2020. Pekka Lundmark, a Nokia veteran, takes over and begins restructuring: cutting 10,000 jobs and investing €600 million in R&D to fix the 5G chip problems.
2021 Nokia wins US Department of Defense 5G contract Nokia is selected to build a private 5G network for the United States Department of Defense — one of the largest private 5G deployments in the world. The contract validates Nokia's 5G technology and its security credentials with the world's most demanding customer. Nokia's positioning as a trusted, non-Chinese provider of telecommunications infrastructure proves its most important competitive advantage as geopolitical tensions reshape the global telecoms market.
2023 Nokia rebrands — drops blue logo after 60 years Nokia unveils a new corporate identity in February 2023 — replacing the iconic blue oval Nokia logo used since 1966 with a new geometric lettermark in multiple colours. The rebrand signals Nokia's determination to shed its mobile phone consumer identity and establish itself as a pure B2B technology company. CEO Pekka Lundmark says the old logo carries too much consumer nostalgia for a company now focused on enterprise and carrier customers.
2024 Nokia restructures into three divisions Nokia restructures its business into three focused divisions: Network Infrastructure, Mobile Networks and Nokia Technologies (patents and licensing). The restructuring gives each business unit clearer accountability and enables potential future separation. Nokia's patent licensing business — generating over €1 billion annually from smartphone makers using Nokia's foundational mobile technology patents — is one of the most valuable patent portfolios in the technology industry.
2025 Nokia Bell Labs — AI research and next-generation networks Nokia Bell Labs — the legendary research division inherited from Alcatel-Lucent — publishes major research in AI-native networking, 6G foundations and quantum communications. Bell Labs' legacy (transistor, laser, Unix, C, information theory) gives Nokia intellectual credibility that no other network equipment vendor can match. Nokia positions Bell Labs as proof that it is not merely a hardware supplier but a technology innovator shaping the next generation of global communications infrastructure.