Nokia, the Famous Hero to Zero.
If you were born in the early 90s, then you would definitely remember Nokia. Nokia was this smartphone giant that had a 50% market share, that’s insane. how did Nokia go from that to a literal 0? This is the story of Nokia.
The Birth of Nokia
Nokia is a Finnish multinational corporation founded on 12 May 1865 as a single paper mill (Learn more about paper mill here) operation. Through the 19th century, the company expanded, branching into several different products. The four major products they did were forestry, cable, rubber, and electronics. In 1967, the Nokia corporation was formed. Fast forward to the late 20th century, the company took advantage of the increasing popularity of computers and mobile phones. Nokia saw where the market was heading and poured every last resource it had on the mobile phone industry.
The Golden Era of Nokia
This Nokia is the Nokia that has 50% market share and everything; The phone company that was the unbeatable company. Nokia in this era had everything. One of Nokia’s best selling phone, 1100, sold a staggering 250 million units between 2003 and 2007. For a single model, that’s unbelievable. No other smartphone companies in the US could compete in this low-end hardware area. There were some companies like HTC who were also good but was nowhere near Nokia’s 50% market share.
Nokia was so good at this hardware competition, they had no competition. They made smartphones hardware that is so good, people still talk about it 20 years down the line. Remember the Nokia 3310? Of course, you do, because who doesn’t. It was the famous dropped on the floor, break the floor, phone. The bedrock of phones if you catch my drift. So, what happened?
iPhone
The arrival of the iPhone was the beginning of the end for Nokia. The moment Apple arrived, the battle shifted. The competition went from hardware to software. All of the sudden, nobody cared if their phone had a bouncy keyboard or not, it was all about having the best software. Nokia was giving people what they want, and although that can give you success, in the technology industry, you need to give people what they didn’t know they want. If you asked anyone before 2007 what they wanted from their phone, they would not have said a screen and a home button. They would’ve said a bouncer keyboard or a more solid hinge.
As a technology company, especially a mobile phone company, the only way to stay a the bleeding edge, is to give people what they didn’t know they wanted. Nokia hardly did anything wrong, they just kept releasing their trusty old phones for a few years and sales just declined. The thing Nokia did wrong was underestimating the iPhone; the importance of software.
Nokia Today
To this very day, Nokia still makes smartphones, but they are nowhere near the monster that they once was. And to be brutally honest, they probably never will be. However, you never know.
