What is known today as Nokia was established in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill by Knut Fredrik Idestam on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in the town of Tampere, in south-western Finland. The company was later relocated to Nokia by the Nokianvirta river, which had better resources for hydropower production. That's where the company also got its name that is still used today. The name of the town of Nokia originated from the river which flowed through the town. The river itself, Nokianvirta, was named after the old Finnish word originally meaning a dark, furry animal that was locally known as the nokia, or sable, later pine marten.
Finnish Rubber Works established its factories in the beginning of 20th century nearby and began using Nokia as its brand. Shortly after World War I Finnish Rubber Works acquired Nokia Wood Mills as well as Finnish Cable Works, a producer of telephone and telegraph cables. All these three companies were merged into the Nokia Corporation in 1967.The Nokia Corporation that has created in the 1967 fusion was involved in many sectors, producing at one time or another paper products, bicycle and car tyres, footwear (including Wellington boots), personal computers, communications cables, televisions, electricity production, capacitors, aluminum, etc.
The seeds of the current incarnation of Nokia were planted with the founding of the electronics section of the cable division in the 1960s. In the 1967 fusion, that section was separated into its own division, and began manufacturing telecommunications equipment.Since 1964 had developed VHF-radio simultaneously with Salora Oy, which later in 1971 also developed the ARP-phone. In 1979 the merger of these two companies resulted in the establishment of Mobira Oy and three years later it launched the NMT phone. Nokia bought Salora Oy in 1984 and now owning 100% of the company, changed the company's name to Nokia-Mobira Oy. In 1988, Jorma Nieminen, resigning from the post of CEO of the mobile phone unit, along with two other employees from the unit, started a notable mobile phone company of their own, Benefon Oy. One year later, Nokia Mobira Oy became Nokia Mobile Phones and in 1991 the first GSM phone was launched.
In the 1970s, Nokia became more involved in the telecommunications industry by developing the Nokia DX200, a digital switch for telephone exchanges. In 1982, a DX200 switch became the world's first digital telephone switch to be put into operational use. The DX200 became the workhorse of the network equipment division. Its modular and flexible architecture enabled it to be developed into various switching products.For a while in the 1970s, Nokia's network equipment production was separated into Telefenno, a company jointly owned by the parent corporation and by a company owned by the Finnish state. In 1987 the state sold its shares to Nokia and in 1992 the name was changed to Nokia Telecommunications.In the 1970s and 1980s Nokia developed the Message device system for Finnish Defence Forces.In the 1980s, Nokia produced a series of personal computers called MikroMikko. However, the PC division was sold to ICL, which later became part of Fujitsu. That company later transferred its personal computer operations to Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which shut down its only factory in Finland at the end of March 2000, thus ending large-scale PC manufacturing in the country.
Nokia's early model Mobira Cityman 200Nokia had been producing commercial and military mobile radio communications technology since the 1960s and later began developing mobile phones for the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) network standard that went online in the 1980s.In 1982, Nokia (then Mobira) introduced its first car phone, the Mobira Senator for NMT 450 networks. The Mobira Talkman, launched in 1984, was the world's first transportable phone. In 1987, Nokia introduced the world's first handheld phone, the Mobira Cityman 900. When the Mobira Senator of 1982 had weighed 9.8 kg (21.6 lb), and the Talkman just under 5 kg (11 lb), the Mobira Cityman weighed only 800 g (28 oz) with the battery and had a price tag of 24,000 Finnish marks (approximately EUR 4,560).[13] Despite the high price, the first phones were almost snatched from the sales assistants’ hands. Initially, the mobile phone was a ‘yuppie’ product and a status symbol.
NMT was the world's first mobile telephony standard that enabled international roaming, and provided valuable experience for Nokia for its close participation in developing Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). It is a digital standard which came to dominate the world of mobile telephony in the 1980s and 1990s, in mid-2006 accounting for about two billion mobile telephone subscribers in the world, or about 80% percent of the total, in more than 200 countries. The world's first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by then Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.In the 1980s, during the era of its CEO Kari Kairamo, Nokia expanded into new fields, mostly by acquisitions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the corporation ran into serious financial problems, a major reason being its heavy losses by the television manufacturing division. (These problems probably contributed to Kairamo taking his own life in 1988.) Nokia responded by streamlining its telecommunications divisions, and by divesting itself of the television and PC divisions. Jorma Ollila, who became the CEO in 1992, made a strategic decision to concentrate solely on telecommunications. Thus, during the rest of the 1990s, Nokia continued to divest itself of all of its non-telecommunications divisions.
The exploding worldwide popularity of mobile telephones, beyond even Nokia's most optimistic predictions, caused a logistics crisis in the mid-1990s. This prompted Nokia to overhaul its entire logistics operation. Logistics continues to be one of Nokia's major advantages over its rivals, along with greater economies of scale.
Evolution of size in Nokia mobile phones In 2004, the troubles of the networks equipment division caused the corporation to resort to similar streamlining practices on that side, with layoffs and organizational restructuring. This, however, diminished Nokia's public image in Finland, and produced a number of court cases along with an episode of a documentary television show critical towards Nokia.
Despite these occasional crises, Nokia has been phenomenally successful in its chosen field. This growth has come mostly during the era of Jorma Ollila and his team of about half a dozen close colleagues. In June 2006, this era came to an end with Ollila leaving the CEO position to become the chairman of Shell. The new CEO of Nokia is Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.On February 2006 Nokia and Sanyo announced a MOU to create a joint venture addressing the CDMA handset business. A few months later, in June, both companies announced ending their negotiations without agreement. Nokia also stated their decision to pull out of CDMA R&D, with the intention to continue CDMA business in selected markets.
On February 10, 2006, Nokia acquired Intellisync Corporation, a provider of data and PIM synchronization software.On June 19, 2006, Nokia and Siemens AG announced the companies are to merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world's largest network firms. Both companies will have a 50% stake in the infrastructure company, to be headquartered in the Helsinki area, and to be called Nokia Siemens Networks. The companies predict annual sales of €16 billion and cost savings of €1.5 billion a year by 2010. About 20,000 Nokia employees will be transferred to this new company.
In May 2007 Nokia announced its Nokia 1100, with over 200 million units shipped, is the best-selling mobile phone of all time and the world's top-selling consumer electronics product.In July 2007 Nokia acquired all assets of Twango, the comprehensive media sharing solution for organizing and sharing photos, videos and other personal media.In August 2007 Nokia launched a series of web services under the brand name Ovi that allows users to download games, maps and music directly to their phones.In September 2007 Nokia announced their intention to acquire Enpocket, a supplier of mobile advertising technology and services.In October 2007 Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, Nokia acquires Navteq, a U.S.-based supplier of digital mapping data, for a price of $8.1B.
Nokia comprises four business groups: Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and Networks, plus various horizontal entities such as Customer and Market Operations, and Technology Platforms.On June 20, 2007, Nokia announced that it would reorganize into three business units, effective January 1, 2008:
DEVICES:-This division combines its existing mainline mobile phones division with the separate subdivisions manufacturing Multimedia (N-Series) and Enterprise (E-Series) class devices, headed by Kai Öistämö.
SERVICES AND SOFTWARES:- This combines the existing Technology Platforms division with other services monetized independently, headed by Niklas Savander.
MARKETS:-The successor organization to Nokia's Customer and Market Operations division, represents the sales, marketing, integration and strategy functions of the company, led by Anssi Vanjoki.
Evolution of the Nokia CommunicatorNokia's Mobile Phones division provides the general public with mobile voice and data products across a wide range of mobile devices. The division aims to target primarily high-volume category sales of mobile phones and devices, with consumers being the most important customer segment. The devices are based on GSM/EDGE, 3G/WCDMA and CDMA cellular technologies.Nokia believes that design, brand, ease of use and price are mainstream mobile phones' most important considerations to customers. Nokia's product portfolio includes camera phones with features such as megapixel cameras and MP3 players which appeal to the mass market.
In the first quarter of 2006 Nokia sold over 15 million MP3 capable mobile phones, which means that Nokia is not only the world's leading supplier of mobile phones and digital cameras,Nokia is now also the leading supplier of digital audio players (MP3 players). Nokia aims to sell 80 million music phones by the end of 2006, outpacing sales of devices such as the iPod from Apple.
The Nokia N93, an example of Nokia's Nseries multimedia product lineup.The Multimedia division's purpose is to design devices and applications that bring multimedia experiences to their customers. These devices allow people to create, access and consume multimedia, as well as share their experiences with others. The devices are included with a wide range of connectivity such as GSM, 3G/WCDMA, WLAN and Bluetooth. Nokia Multimedia Nseries extensively uses Symbian OS.The Multimedia group also works with other companies outside the telecommunications industry to make advances in the technology and bring new applications and possibilities in areas such as Internet services, optics, music synchronization and streaming media.
In August 2006, Nokia acquired online music distributor Loudeye Corp for $60 m. The company has been developing this into an online music service in the hope of using it to generate handset sales. The service is expected to launch in late 2007 and would rival iTunes.
In August 2007, Nokia launched their new social network, dubbed MOSH. MOSH by Nokia is the first-ever social network built by a handset manufacturer. MOSH aims to bring social, media-based networks to the mobile environment. Users can upload, download, share, and bookmark a variety of media - audio files, video files, documents, applications, games, images.
As the name implies, the Nokia Enterprise Solutions offers businesses, corporations and institutions a broad range of products and solutions, such as enterprise-grade mobile devices, underlying security infrastructure, software and services. Nokia also works with a range of companies to provide network security, bring mobilized corporate e-mail and extend corporate telephone systems to work with Nokia’s mobile devices.
Nokia Siemens Networks provides mobile network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services to operators and service providers. Networks focuses in: GSM, EDGE, 3G/WCDMA and WiMAX radio access networks; core networks with increasing IP and multiaccess capabilities; and services.
At the end of 2005, Nokia Networks had more than 150 mobile network customers in more than 60 countries, with its systems serving in excess of 400 million subscribers.
On June 19, 2006 Nokia and Siemens AG announced the companies are to merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world's largest network firms, called Nokia Siemens Networks. The Nokia Siemens Networks brand identity, created by London and Tokyo based branding agency Moving Brands, was subsequently launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007.
Nokia was the first proponent of a Top Level Domain (TLD) specifically for the mobile internet and, as a result, was instrumental in the launch of the .mobi domain name extension in September 2006 as an official backer.Since then, Nokia has launched the largest mobile portal, Nokia.mobi, which receives over 100 million visits a month.It followed that with the launch of a mobile Ad Service to cater to the growing demand for mobile advertisement.
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