Nokia, the name which seemed synonymous with mobile phones, is quietly dropping out of the frame.
Technology giant Microsoft last year spent £4.61 billion on buying large portions of Nokia but the first smartphone to be released after that deal will be Microsoft Lumia, rather than Nokia Lumia.
Nokia’s early brick-like mobile phone increased in value after Russian president Gorbachev was photographed using one in 1989.
But it was the 1992 launch of the Nokia 1011 which really entrenched the company in providing what the public wanted.
Through the ´90s Nokia owned the world market, but its signal failure was to lag behind when smartphones were developed. It did not introduce one until Apple and Samsung had theirs wowing the public and covering the market.
The Finnish company was started in 1865 as a paper mill operating next to the Nokia river, later joined by the Finnish Rubber Works making boots and tyres.
In the early 1990s Nokia Corporation sold off the paper, rubber, television and radio divisions to concentrate on mobile phones and its success bolstered the country, bringing in 23% of Finland’s corporate tax and 21% of its exports.
It also employed one out of every 100 Finnish people, forcing up education standards across the nation to meet the need for skilled workers.
Although many positions have been lost, the company still retains 50,000 workers in its digital maps and networking arms.
Nokia will continue to operate as a mapping, networks and technology licensing company, while retaining ownership of the Nokia brand.
Matti Eskola, the chief executive of a medical technology company who lives in Nokia, says: “Nokia, the town, became a symbol of technology. But it is also a symbol of radical change. Nokia has started many businesses, sold them, and moved on. Mobile phones, after all, were only part of the company for 20 years or so.”
