Nokia which was founded in 1865 by 'Fredrik Idestam'. For a few of years around 1996-1998, Nokia reigned briefly as the most electrifying technology company in the world. This was such an unlikely development that most Finns had great trouble understanding that Finland could be a global leader in the evolution of consumer electronics.
Headquarters
The Nokia House was the head office building of Nokia
Corporation, located in Keilaniemi, Espoo, just outside Helsinki, the capital
of Finland. The two southernmost parts of the building were built in the early
1990s and the third, northernmost part was built in 2000. Around 5000 employees
work in the premises.
In December 2012, Nokia announced that it had sold its head
office building to Finland-based Exilion for €170 million and was leasing it
back on a long term basis.
The building was sold to Microsoft as part of the sale of
the mobile phone business in April 2014. The building was renamed to Microsoft
Talo.
After the sale, Nokia has its headquarters in Karaportti,
Espoo, Finland.
In the 1970s, Nokia became more involved in the
telecommunications industry by developing the Nokia DX 200, a digital switch
for telephone exchanges. The DX 200 became the workhorse of the network
equipment division. Its architecture enabled it to be developed into various
switching products. In 1984, development of a version of the exchange for the
Nordic Mobile Telephony network was started.
In 1998, Check Point established a partnership with Nokia,
bundling Check Point's Software with Nokia's computer Network Security
Appliances.
However before this, NOKIA released the '
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| Nokia communicator left with E91 |
Nokia's first fully portable mobile phone was the Mobira Cityman 900 in 1987. Nokia assisted
in the development of the GSM mobile standard in the 1980s, and developed the
first GSM network with Siemens (predecessor of Nokia Siemens Network). The
world's first GSM call was made by Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri on 1
July 1991 using Nokia equipment, on the 900 MHz band network built by Nokia and
operated by Radiolinja. In November 1992 the Nokia 1011 was the first
commercially available mobile phone. In 1998 Nokia overtook Motorola and became
the best-selling mobile phone brand.
Until the new millennium, Nokia had a few remaining
industries other than the core mobile phones, such as CRT displays for PCs
(until 2000, acquired by ViewSonic), DSL modems, digital and analog set-top
boxes, PC equipment and cards, and televisions. Most of these were gradually
ended in the 2000s.
Nokia launched the Nokia 3310 in 2000. It has become one of
the most popular devices of all time. The Nokia 1100 handset launched in 2003,
shipped over 200 million units, is the best-selling mobile phone of all time
and the world's top-selling consumer electronics product, and contributed to
the company's rise in developing markets. Nokia was one of the first to recognize
the market opportunity in combining a game console and a mobile phone (both of
which many gamers were carrying in 2003) into the N-Gage. The N-Gage was a
mobile phone and game console meant to lure gamers away from the Game Boy
Advance, though it cost twice as much, but this attempt failed.
From 2000 till present, Nokia has released different series of OS.
Series 40
Symbian OS
Nokia 808 Pureview
The 2012 Nokia 808 PureView had a record 41-megapixel
camera, and represented the end of the Symbian platform after its replacement
by Windows Phone.
Symbian OS |
| Nokia 808 Pureview |
Linux devices
Partnership with Microsoft
After this announcement, Nokia's share price fell about 14%,
its biggest drop since July 2009. Nokia's smartphone sales, which had
previously increased, collapsed. From the beginning of 2011 until 2013, Nokia
fell from #1 to #10 in smartphone sales. Amid falling sales, Nokia posted a
loss of 368 million euros for Q2 2011, whereas in Q2 2010, it had realized a
profit of 227 million euros. On September 2011, Nokia has announced it would
cut another 3,500 jobs worldwide, including the closure of its Cluj factory in
Romania. As Nokia was the largest mobile phone and smartphone manufacturer
worldwide at the time, it was suggested the alliance would help Windows Phone.
Nokia was overtaken by Apple as the world's biggest smartphone maker by volume
in June 2011. In August 2011 Chris Weber, head of Nokia's subsidiary in the
U.S., stated "The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone,
it doesn't matter what we do (elsewhere)." He further added "North
America is a priority for Nokia (...) because it is a key market for
Microsoft.".
Sale of mobile phone business to Microsoft
Credits To Wikipedia for this article.
Partnership with Microsoft
After this announcement, Nokia's share price fell about 14%,
its biggest drop since July 2009. Nokia's smartphone sales, which had
previously increased, collapsed. From the beginning of 2011 until 2013, Nokia
fell from #1 to #10 in smartphone sales. Amid falling sales, Nokia posted a
loss of 368 million euros for Q2 2011, whereas in Q2 2010, it had realized a
profit of 227 million euros. On September 2011, Nokia has announced it would
cut another 3,500 jobs worldwide, including the closure of its Cluj factory in
Romania. As Nokia was the largest mobile phone and smartphone manufacturer
worldwide at the time, it was suggested the alliance would help Windows Phone.
Nokia was overtaken by Apple as the world's biggest smartphone maker by volume
in June 2011. In August 2011 Chris Weber, head of Nokia's subsidiary in the
U.S., stated "The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone,
it doesn't matter what we do (elsewhere)." He further added "North
America is a priority for Nokia (...) because it is a key market for
Microsoft.".
Sale of mobile phone business to Microsoft
Credits To Wikipedia for this article.
Partnership with Microsoft
In February 2011, Stephen Elop and Microsoft's CEO Steve
Ballmer jointly announced a major business partnership between the two
companies, which would see Nokia adopt Windows Phone as its primary platform on
future smartphones, replacing both Symbian and MeeGo. The deal also included
the use of Bing as the search engine on Nokia devices, and the integration of
Nokia Maps into Microsoft's own mapping services. Nokia announced that it would
still release one device running the MeeGo platform in 2011, but that it would
devote fewer resources to future development of the platform, and that it would
phase out Symbian entirely. Aligning with Microsoft had been considered a
possibility by analysts due to Elop's prior employment with the company. Nokia
unveiled its first Windows Phone 7-based devices, the mid-range Lumia 710 and
high-end Lumia 800, on October 26, 2011 at its Nokia World conference.
After this announcement, Nokia's share price fell about 14%,
its biggest drop since July 2009. Nokia's smartphone sales, which had
previously increased, collapsed. From the beginning of 2011 until 2013, Nokia
fell from #1 to #10 in smartphone sales. Amid falling sales, Nokia posted a
loss of 368 million euros for Q2 2011, whereas in Q2 2010, it had realized a
profit of 227 million euros. On September 2011, Nokia has announced it would
cut another 3,500 jobs worldwide, including the closure of its Cluj factory in
Romania. As Nokia was the largest mobile phone and smartphone manufacturer
worldwide at the time, it was suggested the alliance would help Windows Phone.
Nokia was overtaken by Apple as the world's biggest smartphone maker by volume
in June 2011. In August 2011 Chris Weber, head of Nokia's subsidiary in the
U.S., stated "The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone,
it doesn't matter what we do (elsewhere)." He further added "North
America is a priority for Nokia (...) because it is a key market for
Microsoft.".
Sale of mobile phone business to Microsoft
On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced that it would
acquire Nokia's mobile device business in a deal worth €3.79bn($4.25bn), along
with another €1.65bn($1.85bn) to license Nokia's portfolio of patents for 10 years;
a deal totaling at over €5.4bn($6.05bn). Steve Ballmer considered the purchase
to be a "bold step into the future" for both companies, primarily as
a result of its recent collaboration. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat,
former Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki commented that the Microsoft deal was
"inevitable" due to the "failed strategy" of Stephen Elop.
Its deal was closed on April 25, 2014 for "slightly
more" than the originally stated €5.44($6.10) billion. Nokia's mobile
phone assets became a part of Microsoft Mobile, a new subsidiary of Microsoft
based in Finland. The deal was originally expected to be closed in March 2014,
but was delayed by a tax dispute involving a factory in India—officials claimed
that Nokia had not properly paid taxes on devices that were produced at the
plant, but sold domestically (exports are exempt from taxes). Indian
governments had required that Nokia place money in escrow before it was allowed
to transfer control of the factory to Microsoft. As a result, the plant was not
transferred to Microsoft, but produced products on behalf of the company.
As part of the deal, Microsoft acquired the Asha, X and
Lumia brands, but only had a limited license to the Nokia brand. Microsoft
could only use the Nokia brand to promote Asha, X and Lumia products until
December 2015, and feature phones for 10 years. Microsoft did not acquire any
rights to the Nokia tune, which the company may only use as the default
ringtone on Nokia-branded devices. Nokia itself was also subject to a non-compete
clause forbidding it from manufacturing any Nokia-branded smartphones until
December 2015. Microsoft also took over Nokia's website and social media
outlets following the closure of the deal; this arrangement was in place for a
minimum of one year after the closure. The company continued to use the Nokia
name on smartphones through October 2014, when Microsoft announced that future
smartphones would be branded with Microsoft's name and logo.
A number of Nokia executives joined Microsoft as a result;
Stephen Elop became the head of Microsoft's devices team (which include
products such as Xbox and Surface lines); Risto Siilasmaa replaced Elop as
interim CEO, before the appointment of Rajeev Suri. Post-acquisition, Nokia
focuses on two core business units; its infrastructure division Nokia Networks,
and developing and licensing division Nokia Technologies.
In July 2014, Microsoft announced a significant layoff of
workers, including 12,500 workers from the former mobile phone group at Nokia.
Microsoft also ended future development of Nokia's non-Windows Phone product
lines, in favor of focusing only on Windows Phone and Series 30+ devices..
Credits To Wikipedia for this article.
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