Nokia: From Rubber Boots to Everyone's First Phone

Your first phone was probably a Nokia. In 2007 almost four in ten phones sold on Earth were Nokias. Six years later it sold its phone business to Microsoft. And it all started with a paper mill on a river in Finland. A mill in Tampere, rubber boots and toilet paper, a boss who bet on phones, the first GSM call, the Nokia tune, Snake, the 3310, a fire in New Mexico, the iPhone, the burning platform memo, and the company that is still carrying your signal today. This is the story of Nokia, told in six acts. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:37 Act I · The River 1:25 Act II · The Man Who Bet on Phones 2:42 Act III · The First Call 3:32 Act IV · Everybody's Phone 5:06 Act V · The Burning Platform 6:18 Act VI · Still Standing 6:54 Epilogue Sources Jorma Ollila and Harri Saukkomaa, Against All Odds: Leading Nokia from Near Catastrophe to Global Success (2016) Nokia, The human story of GSM: https://www.nokia.com/thought-leaders... Ericsson History, Nokia for sale (1991 talks): https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/... Ericsson History, The problem with mobile phones (Albuquerque fire): https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/... Wall Street Journal, Nokia handles supply chain shock (2001): https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/cour... London Museum, Mobira Cityman, 'the Gorba': https://londonmuseum.org.uk/collectio... Classic FM, Where the Nokia tune comes from: https://classicfm.com/composers/tarre... MEL Magazine, An oral history of Snake: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/s... Guinness World Records, Biggest-selling mobile phone: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/... VentureBeat (on the New York Times report), Nokia had an iPhone-like prototype in 2004: https://venturebeat.com/business/noki... The Next Web, Stephen Elop's 'burning platform' memo: https://thenextweb.com/news/nokia-ceo... NBC News, Microsoft to buy Nokia's handset business: https://www.nbcnews.com/businessmain/... TechSpot, How Microsoft wrote off the Nokia deal: https://www.techspot.com/news/102922-... Music "Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... "Wallpaper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Told by Mr. Bigs. Narration voice generated with AI.