Nokia Mobile Company History

For more than three decades, our generation has grown up listening to the motto “connecting people”. Nokia is the company that brought connectivity, reliability, and durability together. That brought innovative solutions to connect people and shape a better future through technology. A brand that has been with our generation from the early years of the 19th century until now. Also, if you are an ‘80s or ‘90s kid, it probably holds a sweet memory in your mind. Today at the Phone Counter, we are going to learn about the soulful Nokia mobile company history!

Nokia Mobile Company History

An interesting fact about the Nokia company is that they were not cell phone producers. Back in 1865, they were a pulp producer company(in Tampere, Finland). Then, by 1898, they had become rubber manufacturers. In 1912, they started cable operation, and in the 1960s, they started creating electronics for military/commercial tech. It wasn’t until the 90s that they officially became the mobile manufacturers. And these mobiles came into the industry to rule it for a long time. Let’s have a look at Nokia Mobile Company’s history.

Nokia Mobile Company History

Foundation

- In 1979, Nokia developed the early car phone. And by 1982, they were ready to launch the Mobira Senator (9.8 kg car phone). In 1987, Nokia introduced its first-ever handheld Mobira Cityman, which weighed 800g. It was worth $5,456.
- In 1991, Finnish PM Harri Holkeri made the world’s first GSM call via Nokia. This word spread like a fire, and by 1994, Nokia launched the iconic Nokia 2100 series, which sold 20M units

2. Global Dominance

In the 1990s, Nokia had become one of the world’s top mobile manufacturers and even surpassed Motorola, the original mobile creators.
In 2000, Nokia 3310 was released, which is still remembered as a drop-resistant legend; it sold 125M units.
In 2003, Nokia sparked the multimedia revolution by releasing its built-in camera phone, Nokia 7650, with a 0.3-megapixel VGA sensor (640×480 resolution).
In 2007, Nokia reached its first-ever Peak market share of 49.4% due to the release of Symbian OS in S60 devices.

4. The Advent of Smartphones and Nokia’s Fall

In 2007, Apple manufactured and introduced its first smartphone. Then came the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 with amazing features. From here, the era of smartphone dominance started. And soon the market flooded with companies producing variant smartphones each passing day. This was a challenge for Nokia.
In 2008, Nokia launched the Nokia N96, Nokia E71, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, and Nokia E66 with features like microSD expansion, mobile TV support, LED flash, and music chips. Nokia held 38.6% global smartphone share.
But Nokia smartphones couldn’t hold the attention of the new generation of mobile users for long. Their simple features and touchscreens lagged behind iPhone’s capacitive tech and high-quality specs. They were unable to build a strong ecosystem. So, in 2013, Nokia had to sell its mobile division to Microsoft for € 5.44 B.

5. Nokia’s Revival

In 2016, Nokia acquired Bell Labs to expand its extensive patent portfolio.
In 2016, the company again started producing the phones, but this time under a new banner. They started working under the HMD Global licensed brand for Android phones.
In 2020, Nokia began creating the first network on the Moon, the same year it surpassed 3,000 5G patents.
In 2023, Nokia launched Nokia XR21, a dust-proof, water and drop-resistant military-grade rugged smartphone. In the same year, 2023, A scientist from Nokia Bell Labs won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In 2024, Nokia reached €19.2bn in net sales. Also, Nokia announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with AT&T to deploy next-generation fiber access technology.
In 2025, Nokia will pay strategic focus on enterprise IoT(devices equipped with sensors, software, and other technologies) and Open RAN solutions.

Nokia’s Legacy

Nokia has not only been the best cell phone manufacturer for years, but it also has a fascinating history of other achievements.

Nokia has won 10 Nobel Prizes, 8 Emmy awards, 5 Turing awards, 2 Grammy awards, and 1 Academy award since its foundation as a telecommunication company.
Nokia won 3 GTI awards in 2023: Innovative Breakthrough in Mobile Technology Award, Innovative Mobile Service and Application Award , and Market Development & Monetization Award.
In 2023, Nokia was ranked the best Google Cloud partner of the year.
Since its beginning, Nokia has been nominated 9 times as a World’s Most Ethical Companies® Honoree.
Nokia has 3000+ inventions for which patents were filed in 2024.
The Automotive licensing programs of Nokia are making drives more safe and connected.
Nokia continues to invest heavily in research and development (R&D). Nokia has invested over €150 billion in R&D since 2000. Our annual R&D investment is over €4 billion.
Nokia Bell Labs holds 20,000+ patents (2024 R&D investment €4.1B, 23% of revenue