Old School Fridays – History of Nokia

For today’s “Old School Fridays” post I’m going to do a short (and high-level) history lesson on Nokia. Nokia’s history is very interesting and not what you would think. Contrary to popular belief Nokia has not always been in the telecommunications industry. In fact Nokia was created in 1865 as a paper manufacturer in Finland. The name Nokia came from the name of the town in Finland where the paper mill was built. In 1910 Nokia moved into the rubber business makes galoshes and boots. It wasn’t until 1960 that Nokia entered the consumer electronics space. Over the next 30 years Nokia focused solely on consumer electronics, and in 1990 Nokia decided to focus solely on telecommunications. In 1992 Nokia created their first GSM cell phone, the Nokia 1011.

Today Nokia is one of the largest manufacturers of cell phones in the world. It’s amazing to think that one of the largest manufacturers of cell phones started off making paper and rubber boots. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years the largest manufacturer of cell phones could start as a water bottling company or fast food restaurant, you never know.