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Nokia: From Paper Production to Electronics
By admin | March 26, 2008
The history of the world’s largest cell phones manufacturer goes back to the year 1865, when Finnish engineer Fredrik Idestam started his paper manufacturing business. At that time Nokia was a modest wood-pulp mill on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in southern Finland. Due to the fast industrialization process in Europe and the increase in paper consumption Nokia became a successful venture, and soon Idestam set up another mill by the Nokianvirta river. As you can easily deduce, the name of the company stems from Nokianvirta, which in its turn was named after an old Finnish word that originally meant sable. As the company expanded it formed a small community around it that still exists on the banks of the Ema”koski river. The strides made by Nokia and the hydroelectricity potential of the river attracted other companies, particularly the Finnish Rubber Works that established its factory there and soon started using Nokia as the brand name. The company manufactured rubber footwear, raincoats, tires and industrial parts.
After World War II the Finish Rubber Works became a major shareholder of the Finnish Cable Works that was rapidly developing due to the high demand for its products in power transmission and communication industries. In 1967 the two companies merged in the Nokia Group. The landmark event is embedded in Nokia’s company logo.
However, the Nokia’s success as a telecommunication giant started to build up as early as 1960 when the Cable Works’ Electronics department was formed. By the time Nokia Group was established the Electronics accounted for 3% of the overall net sales and provided for 460 workplaces. The department launched researches into semiconductor technology and later began developing digital switches that eventually evolved into the multifaceted platform that Nokia’s network infrastructure is still based upon today.
The new legislation allowing Finnish telecommunication companies to connect to the public communication network resulted in the establishment of Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT), that was the first fully-automatic multinational cellular network.
In the late 1980-s the first common digital mobile standard which is known as GSM (an abbreviation for Global System for Mobile Communication) was developed and by 1997 Nokia managed to become the supplier of GSM systems to as many as 59 operators from 31 countries.
Although Nokia started aggressive expansion to other business sectors including TV-sets production and information technologies it is the telecommunications and mobile technologies that got the company through the deep economic recession of 1990-s. Nokia was very fast to recover and in 1992 decided to focus on telecommunications as the strategic development priority. That decision to a large extent accounts for the incredible success of the company that in 1994 managed to sell 20 million 2100 series cellular phones instead of the anticipated 500 000.
Today Nokia’s positions as the world’s leading telecommunication company are strong and its range of products is broader than ever including multimedia terminals, wi-fi data solutions and, of course, cell phones.
Topics: Cell Phones, Cell Phones Manufacturers |