INTRODUCTION

This Project Report is about NOKIA, a reborn multinational communications and information
technology company, founded in 1865.

The report is basically about Comeback of Nokia, the company that we all know was once at
the top at a time and was the world's 274th-largest company measured by 2013 revenues
according to the Fortune Global 500. But a time came when it faced such a huge loss that it
has to shutdown itself and had to sell itself to Microsoft.

This project report will tell you about the history of Nokia, how, when, where and by whom it
came into existence, its growth, success, decline, downfall and at last its Comeback. Here, I
will find out what was the reason behind this downfall and how was it able to do a comeback
after failing so hard. How a company, which was once a trendsetter made such a big mistake
of neglecting the latest trend and how quickly it realised the mistake and worked hard to
bring itself back into the limelight.

Here, in this report, I will also tell about the Smartphone world. It will include the evolution
of Smartphone, their history, their development, future development possibilities and will tell
how this world became the main reason behind Nokia’s downfall and its comeback
respectively. How Nokia neglected the emerging technological trends of Smartphone and
failed with the idea of doing something different and how late it realised that now it is the
time to do what it requires rather than what they themselves wanted to do.
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 The Primary Objective was to study the reason behind the downfall of NOKIA
and it Comeback.

 The Secondary Objectives of this study were to identify:

 How Nokia failed to realize the competition and importance of the latest trend and
technology?
 How it made a successful comeback after failing so hard.?

 To know about the evolution of Smartphone.

 About the technological changes that it has occurred in all these years in the
Smartphone world, its development and how Nokia failed to see this and has to sell
itself to another company.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 SAMPLING METHODOLOGY:

 Sampling Size – 50 respondents

 Sampling Area- Delhi

 Sampling Technique- Random Sampling technique

 RESEARCH DESIGN:

 Will visit the customers across Delhi & gathered information required as per the
questionnaire.

 The research design is probability research design and is descriptive research.

 DATA COLLECTION:
 Primary data has been used by me in the form of Questionnaire & Observation, which
are the two basic methods of collecting primary data, which suffices all research
objectives.

 Secondary data sources like catalogue of the company, &various internet sites have
been used.
 LIMITAIONS OF THE STUDY

 The limitations of the research are:

 The report’s primary data is limited as the company was not in existence for more
than a couple of years or so and it’s been only a year that it’s has reopened so all the
closed stores are taking time to come so back only the customers that have used Nokia
phones will be contacted to collect the data and as the sample area is limited so it
would be difficult to collect the data for the Nokia phones that were not launched in
India. And for the recent launches it will to quick as well as the customers are limited
those who are using those phones.

 As Nokia is such a big and popular company the secondary data is very vast which
creates a problem in collecting the data as it is different on every other website.

 Same is with the data of Smartphone is available in abundance which creates a lot of
confusion about its history and some related facts and figures are quite biased in some
of the sites.
 NOKIA

Nokia Corporation, stylised as NOKIA, is a Finnish multinational communications and

information technology company, founded in 1865. Nokia is headquartered in Espoo,
Uusimaa, in the greater Helsinki metropolitan area. In 2014, Nokia employed 61,656 people
across 120 countries, did business in more than 150 countries and reported annual revenues
of around €12.73 billion. Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki
Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. It is the world's 274th-largest company
measured by 2013 revenues according to the Fortune Global 500. The company is a
component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

The company has had various industries in its 150-year history, originally founded as a pulp
mill, and currently focuses on large-scale telecommunications infrastructures, and technology
development and licensing. Nokia is also a major contributor to the mobile telephony
industry, having assisted in development of the GSM and LTE standards, and was, for a
period, the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world. Nokia's dominance also extended
into the smartphone industry through its Symbian platform, but was soon overshadowed by
competitors. Nokia eventually entered into a pact with Microsoft in 2011 to exclusively use
its Windows Phone platform on future smartphones. Its mobile phone business was
eventually bought by Microsoft in an overall deal totaling $7.17 billion. Stephen Elop,
Nokia's former CEO, and several other executives joined the new Microsoft Mobile
subsidiary of Microsoft as part of the deal, which was completed on April 25, 2014.

Since the sale of its mobile phone business, Nokia began to focus more extensively on its
telecommunications infrastructure business, marked by the divestiture of its Here Maps
division, its foray in virtual reality, and the acquisitions of French telecommunications
company Alcatel-Lucent and digital health maker Withings in 2016. From late 2016, Nokia's
name will return to the mobile phone market through HMD global.
 HISTORY

1865–1967

Nokia's history dates back to 1865, when Finnish-Swede mining engineer Fredrik
Idestam established a pulp mill near the town of Tampere, Finland (then in the Russian
Empire). A second pulp mill was opened in 1868 near the neighboring town of Nokia,
offering better hydropower resources. In 1871, Idestam, together with friend Leo Mechelin,
formed a shared company from it and called it Nokia Ab (in Swedish, Nokia Company being
the English equivalent), after the site of the second pulp mill.

Idestam retired in 1896, making Mechelin the company's chairman. Mechelin expanded
into electricity generation by 1902 which Idestam had opposed. In 1904 Suomen
Gummitehdas (Finnish Rubber Works), a rubber business founded by Eduard Polón,
established a factory near the town of Nokia and used its name.

In 1922, Nokia Ab entered into a partnership with Finnish Rubber Works

and Kaapelitehdas (the Cable Factory), all now jointly under the leadership of Polón. Finnish
Rubber Works company grew rapidly when it moved to the Nokia region in the 1930s to take
advantage of the electrical power supply, and the cable company soon did too.

Nokia at the time also made respirators for both civilian and military use, from the 1930s well
into the early 1990s.
1967–1990

In 1967, the three companies - Nokia, Kaapelitehdas and Finnish Rubber Works - merged and
created the new Nokia Corporation, a new restructured form divided into four major
businesses: forestry, cable, rubber and electronics. In the early 1970s, it entered the
networking and radio industry. Nokia also started making military equipment for Finland's
defence forces (Puolustusvoimat), such as the Sanomalaite M/90 communicator in 1983, and
the M61 gas mask first developed in the 1960s. Nokia was now also making professional
mobile radios, telephone switches, capacitors and chemicals.

After Finland's trade agreement with the Soviet Union in the 1960s, Nokia expanded into the
Soviet market. It soon widened trade, ranging from automatic telephone
exchanges to robotics among others; by the late 1970s the Soviet Union became a major
market for Nokia, helping to yield high profits. Nokia also co-operated on scientific
technology with the Soviet Union. The U.S. government became increasingly suspicious of
that technologic co-operation after the end of the Cold War détente in the early 1980s. Nokia
imported many US-made components and used them for the Soviets, and according to U.S.
Deputy Minister of Defence, Richard Perle, Nokia had a secret co-operation with The
Pentagon that allowed the U.S. to keep track in technologic developments in the Soviet Union
through trading with Nokia. However this was a demonstration of Finland trading with both
sides, as it was neutral during the Cold War.

In 1977, Kari Kairamo became CEO and he transformed the company's businesses. By this
time Finland were becoming what has been called "Nordic Japan". Under his leadership
Nokia acquired many companies. In 1984, Nokia acquired television maker Salora, followed
by Swedish electronics and computer maker Luxor AB in 1985, and French television maker
Oceanic in 1987. This made Nokia the third-largest television manufacturer of Europe
(behind Philips and Thomson). The existing brands continued to be used until the end of the
television business in 1996.

In 1987, Nokia acquired Schaub-Lorenz, the consumer operations of Germany's Standard

Elektrik Lorenz (SEL), which included its "Schaub-Lorenz" and "Graetz" brands. It was
originally part of American conglomerate International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) and
after the acquisition products were sold under the "ITT Nokia" brand, despite SEL's sale to
Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE), the predecessor of Alcatel, in 1986.
On 1 April 1988 Nokia bought the computer division of Ericsson's Information
Systems, which originated as a computer division of Swedish aircraft and car
manufacturer Saabcalled Datasaab. Ericsson Information Systems
made Alfaskop terminals, typewriters, minicomputers and Ericsson IBM compatible PCs.
The merge with Nokia's existing Information Systems division - which already had a line of
personal computers called MikroMikko since 1981 - resulted in the name Nokia Data.

Nokia also acquired Mobira, a mobile telephony company, which was the foundation of its
future mobile phones business. In 1981, Mobira launched the Nordic Mobile
Telephone(NMT) service, the world's first international cellular network and the first to allow
international roaming. In 1982, Mobira launched the Mobira Senator car phone, Nokia's first
mobile phone. At that time, the company had no interest in producing mobile phones, which
the executive board regarded as akin to James Bond's gadgets - improbably futuristic and
niche devices. After all these acquisitions Nokia's revenue base became US$2.7 billion.
Tragically CEO Kairamo committed suicide on 11 December 1988.

In 1987, Kaapelitehdas discontinued production of cables at its Helsinki factory after 44

years, effectively shutting down the sub-company.
1990–2010

Following Simo Vuorilehto's appointment as CEO, a major restructuring was planned. With
11 groups within the company, Vuorilehto divested industrial units he deemed as un-
strategic. Nokian Tyres (Nokian Renkaat), a tyre producer originally formed as a division of
Finnish Rubber Works in 1932, split away from Nokia Corporation in 1988. Two years later,
in 1990, Finnish Rubber Works followed suit. In 1991 Nokia sold its computer division,
Nokia Data, to UK-based International Computers Limited (ICL), the precursor of Fujitsu
Siemens. Investors thought of this as financial trouble and Nokia's stock price sunk as a
result. Finland was now also experiencing its worst recession in living memory, and the
collapse of the Soviet Union, a major customer, made matters worse.

Vuorilehto quit in January 1992 and was replaced by Jorma Ollila, who had been the head of
the mobile phone business from 1990 and advised against selling that division. Ollila decided
to turn Nokia into a 'telecom-oriented' company, and he eventually got rid of divisions like
the power business. This strategy proved to be very successful and the company grew rapidly
in the following years. Nokia's operating profit went from negative in 1991 to $1 billion in
1995 and almost $4 billion by 1999.

Nokia's first fully portable mobile phone after the Mobira Senator was the Mobira Cityman
900 in 1987. Nokia assisted in the development of the GSM mobile standard in the 1980s,
and developed the first GSM network with Siemens, the predecessor to Nokia Siemens
Network. The world's first GSM call was made by Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri on 1
July 1991, using Nokia equipment on the 900 MHz band network built by Nokia and
operated by Radiolinja. In November 1992, the Nokia 1011 launched, making it the first
commercially available GSM mobile phone.

Salora Oy as a Nokia subsidiary ended in 1989 when the division was merged into Nokia-
Mobira Oy. The brand continued to be used for televisions until 1995.
On 12 June 1996, Nokia announced the sale of its television business to Canada/Hong Kong-
based Semi-Tech Corporation. The television manufacturing plant in Germany closed down
in September 1996. The sale included a factory in Turku, and the rights to use the Nokia,
Finlux, Luxor, Salora, Schaub-Lorenz and Oceanic brands until the end of 1999. Some of
these brands were later sold to other companies.

Nokia was the first to launch digital satellite receivers in the UK, announced in March 1997.
In August 1997 Nokia introduced the first digital satellite receiver with Common Interface
(CI) support. In 1998 Nokia became the chosen supplier to produce the world's first digital
terrestrial television set-top boxes by British Digital Broadcasting (BDB), which was
eventually launched as ONdigital.

In October 1998, Nokia overtook Motorola to become the best-selling mobile phone brand,
and in December manufactured its 100 millionth mobile phone. Nokia's mobile phones
became highly successful in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. They were also one of the
pioneers of mobile gaming due to the popularity of Snake, which came pre-loaded on many
products. The 3310 is one of the company's most well-known products. Nokia also created
the best-selling mobile phone of all time, the Nokia 1100, in 2003.

Nokia claimed in April 1996 its 447Xav and 447K monitors to be the first with stereo
speakers and a sub-woofer. In May 1999 Nokia introduced their first wireless LAN products.
In January 2000 ViewSonic acquired Nokia Display Products, the division making displays
for personal computers. On 26 April 2001 Nokia partnered with Telefonica to supply DSL
modems and routers in Spain.

In 1998, Nokia co-founded Symbian Ltd. led by Psion to create a new operating system for
PDAs as a successor of EPOC32. In 2001 Nokia created the Series 60 platform on Symbian
OS, later introducing it with their first camera phone, the Nokia 7650. Both Nokia and
Symbian eventually became the largest smartphone hardware and software maker
respectively, and in February 2004 became the largest shareholder of Symbian Ltd. Nokia
acquired the entire company in June 2008 and then formed the Symbian Foundation as its
successor.

In 1998 alone, the company had sales revenue of $20 billion making $2.6 billion profit. By
2000 Nokia employed over 55,000 people.

The Nokia 3600/3650 was the first camera phone on sale in North America in 2003. The
company would go on to become a successful and innovative camera phone maker. In April
2005 Nokia partnered with German camera optics maker Carl Zeiss AG. That same month
Nokia introduced the Nseries, which would become its flagship line of smart phones for the
next six years. The Nokia N95 introduced in September 2006 became highly successful and
was also awarded as "best mobile imaging device" in Europe in 2007. Its successor the N82
featured a xenon flash, which helped it win the award of "best mobile imaging" device in
Europe in 2008. The N93 in 2006 was known for its specialized camcorder and the twistable
design that switches between clamshell and a camcorder-like position. They were also well
known for the N8 with a high resolution 12-megapixel sensor in 2010; the 808 PureView in
2012 with a 41-megapixel sensor; and the Lumia 920 flagship in 2012 which implemented
advanced PureView technologies.

In 2002, Nokia attempted to break into the handheld gaming market with the N-Gage.Nokia's
head of entertainment and media, Ilkka Raiskinen, once quoted "Game Boy is for 10-year-
olds", stating that N-Gage is more suited to a mature audience. However, the device was a
failure, unable to challenge the dominant market leader Nintendo. Nokia attempted to revive
N-Gage as a platform for their S60 smartphones, which eventually launched in 2008.

Nokia launched mobile TV trials in 2005 in Finland with content provided by public
broadcaster Yle. The services are based on the DVB-H standard. It could be viewed with the
widescreen Nokia 7710 smartphone with a special accessory enabling it to receive DVB-H
signals. Nokia partnered with Arqiva and O2 to launch trials in the UK in September 2005.
In 2005 Nokia developed a Linux-based operating system called Maemo, which shipped that
year on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.

On 1 June 2006, Jorma Ollila became the company's chairman and retired as CEO, replaced
by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

In August 2007, Nokia introduced Ovi, an umbrella name for the company's new Internet
services which included the N-Gage platform and the Nokia Music Store. The Ovi Store
faced stiff competition against Apple's App Store when it was introduced in 2008.

In October 2008 Nokia announced the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the first device to ship with
the new touch-centric S60 5th Edition, also known as Symbian^1, the first iteration of the
platform since the creation of the Symbian Foundation. In November 2008 Nokia announced
it would end mobile phone sales in Japan because of low market share.

Nokia briefly returned to the computer market with the Booklet 3G netbook in August 2009.
2010–2014

In April 2010 Nokia introduced its next flagship mobile device, the Nokia N8, which would
be the first to run on Symbian^3. However it was delayed for many months which tarnished
the company's image, especially after the failure of its previous flagship N97 and tougher
competition from Apple and the rising Google. On 10 September 2010, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo
was fired as CEO and it was announced that Stephen Elop from Microsoft would take Nokia's
CEO position, becoming the first non-Finnish director in Nokia's history.
The old Symbian OS became completely open source in February 2010. However, in
November 2010 it was announced that the Symbian Foundation was closing and that Nokia
would take back control of the Symbian operating system under closed licensing. By now
Nokia was the only remaining company using the platform, along with carrier NTT DoCoMo
in Japan, after both Samsung and Sony Ericsson moved to Android. Meanwhile, in 2010 for
Nokia's Linux ambitions, Nokia collaborated with Intel to form the MeeGo project, after the
merger of Nokia's own Maemo and Intel's Moblin.
Nokia's Symbian platform that had been the leading smartphone platform in Europe and Asia
for many years was quickly becoming outdated and difficult for developers after the advent
of iOS and Android. To counter this, Nokia planned to make their MeeGo Linux operating
system the company's flagship on smartphones. However, in February 2011, they scrapped
MeeGo and announce a partnership with Microsoft to use Windows Phone as Nokia's
primary operating system, relegating Symbian to a lower priority. Although the MeeGo-
based N9 was met with a highly positive reception in 2011, Nokia - apparently pressured by
Microsoft had already decided to end development on MeeGo and solely focus on its
Microsoft partnership. After the announcement of the Microsoft deal, Nokia's market share
deteriorated; this was due to demand for Symbian dropping when consumers realized Nokia's
focus and attention would be elsewhere. Nokia's first Windows Phone flagship was the
Lumia 800, which arrived in November 2011. Falling sales in 2011, which were not being
improved significantly with the Lumia line in 2012, led to consecutive quarters of huge
losses. By mid-2012 the company's stock price fell below $2. CEO Elop announced cost-
cutting measures in June by shedding 10,000 employees by the end of the year and the
closure of the Salo manufacturing plant. The Finnish prime minister also announced that the
government won't save the company from an emergency state fund.
On 11 March 2011 Nokia announced that it had paid Elop a $6 million signing bonus as
"compensation for lost income from his prior employer," on top of his $1.4 million annual
salary. This was a turning point, since Elop has previously been a Microsoft employee in its
Business Division. It later became clear that Microsoft was influential within Nokia, pushing
forward its Windows Phone offering.
When the Lumia 920 was announced in September 2012, it was seen by the press as the first
high-end Windows Phone that could challenge rivals due to its advanced feature set. The
company was also making gains in developing countries with its Asha series, which were
selling strongly. Although Nokia's smartphone market share recovered in 2013, it was still
not enough to improve the dire financial situation: the company had had huge losses for two
years, and in September 2013 announced the sale of its mobile and devices division to
Microsoft. The sale was positive for Nokia to stop further disastrous financial figures, as well
as for Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, who wanted Microsoft to produce more hardware and
turn it into a devices and services company. The sale was completed in April 2014, with
Microsoft Mobile becoming the successor to Nokia's mobile devices division.
By 2014, Nokia's global brand value according to Interbrand fell to 98th place, a sharp slide
from the 5th place it was in 2009.
In July 2013, Nokia bought Siemens' stake in the Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture for
$2.2 billion, turning it into a wholly owned subsidiary called Nokia Solutions and Networks,
until being rebranded as Nokia Networks soon after. During Nokia's financial struggles, its
profitable networking division with Siemens provided much of its income; thus, the purchase
proved to be positive, particularly after the sale of its mobile devices unit.
2014 to present

After the sale of its mobile devices division, Nokia focused on network equipment through
Nokia Networks.
In October 2014, Nokia and China Mobile signed a US$970 million framework deal for
delivery between 2014 and 2015.
On 17 November 2014, Nokia Technologies head Ramzi Haidamus disclosed that the
company planned to re-enter the consumer electronics business as an original design
manufacturer, licensing in-house hardware designs and technologies to third-party
manufacturers. Haidamus stated that the Nokia brand was "valuable" but "is diminishing in
value, and that's why it is important that we reverse that trend very quickly, imminently." The
next day, Nokia unveiled the N1, an Android tablet manufactured by Foxconn, as its first
product following the Microsoft sale. Haidamus emphasized that devices released under these
licensing agreements would be held to high standards in production quality, and would "look
and feel just like Nokia built it." Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri stated that the company planned to
re-enter the mobile phone business in this manner in 2016, following the expiration of its
non-compete clause with Microsoft.
According to Robert Morlino, the spokesman of Nokia Technologies, Nokia planned follow
the brand-licensing model rather than direct marketing of mobile devices due to the sale of its
mobile devices division to Microsoft. The company took aggressive steps to revitalize itself,
evident through its hiring of software experts, testing of new products and seeking of sales
partners. On 14 July 2015, CEO Rajeev Suri confirmed that the company would make a
return to the mobile phones market in 2016.
On 28 July 2015, Nokia announced OZO, a 360-degrees virtual reality camera, with eight 2K
optical image sensors. The division behind the product, Nokia Technologies, claimed that
OZO would be the most advanced VR film-making platform. Nokia's press release stated that
OZO would be "the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions," with more
technologic products expected in the future. OZO was fully unveiled on 30 November in Los
Angeles. The OZO, designed for professional use, was intended for retail for US$60,000;
however, its price was decreased by $15,000 prior to release, and is listed on its official
website as $40,000.
On 14 April 2015, Nokia confirmed that it was in talks with the French telecommunications
equipment company Alcatel-Lucent regarding a potential merger. The next day, Nokia
officially announced that it had agreed to purchase Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion in an all-
stock deal. CEO Rajeev Suri felt that the purchase would give Nokia a strategic advantage in
the development of 5G wireless technologies. The acquisition created a stronger competitor
to the rival firms Ericsson and Huawei, whom Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent had surpassed in
terms of total combined revenue in 2014. Nokia shareholders hold 66.5% of the new
combined company, while Alcatel-Lucent shareholders hold 33.5%. The Bell Labs division
was to be maintained, but the Alcatel-Lucent brand would be replaced by Nokia. In October
2015, following approval of the deal by China's Ministry of Commerce, the merger awaited
approval by French regulators. Despite the initial intent of selling the submarine cable
division separately, Alcatel-Lucent later declared that it would not. The merger closed on 14
January 2016, but was not complete until 3 November 2016. From the acquisition Nokia is
now also the owner of the Alcatel mobile phone brand, which continues to be licensed to
TCL Corporation.
On 3 August 2015, Nokia announced that it had reached a deal to sell its Here digital maps
division to a consortium of BMW, Daimler AG and Volkswagen Group for €2.8 billion. The
deal closed on 3 December 2015.
On 26 April 2016, Nokia announced its intent to acquire connected health device maker
Withings for US$191 million. The company was integrated into a new Digital Health unit of
Nokia Technologies.
On 18 May 2016, Microsoft Mobile sold its Nokia-branded feature phone business to HMD
Global, a new company founded by former Nokia executive Jean-Francois Baril, and an
associated factory in Vietnam to Foxconn's FIH Mobile subsidiary. Nokia subsequently
entered into a long-term licensing deal to make HMD the exclusive manufacturer of Nokia-
branded phones and tablets outside Japan, operating in conjunction with Foxconn. The deal
also granted HMD the right to essential patents and feature phone software. HMD
subsequently announced the Android-based Nokia 6 smartphone in January 2017. At Mobile
World Congress, HMD additionally unveiled the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 smartphones, as well
as a re-imagining of Nokia's classic 3310 feature phone. While Nokia has no investment in
the company they do have some input in the new devices.
On 28 June 2016 Nokia demonstrated for the first time ever a 5G-ready network. In February
2017 Nokia carried out a 5G connection in Oulu, Finland using the 5GTF standard, backed
by Verizon, on Intel architecture-based equipment.
On 5 July 2017, Nokia and Xiaomi announced that they have signed a business collaboration
agreement and a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross license to each company's
cellular standard essential patents.
In 2017, Nokia's brand value jumped 147 places to 188th place compared to 2016 in the
Brand Finance ranking. Its rise has been attributed to its health portfolio and new mobile
phones developed by HMD Global.
On 19 January 2018, Nokia signed a deal with NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator,
to provide 5G wireless radio base stations in the country by 2020.
On 29 January 2018, Nokia introduced the ReefShark line of 5G chipsets, claiming that it
triples bandwidth to 84 Gbps. It will be released by Q3 2018. It also incorporates artificial
intelligence technologies from Bell Labs.
On 13 March 2018, Solidium, the investment arm of the Finnish government, purchased a
3.3% stake in Nokia valued at €844 million
Operations

Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki and New York stock
exchanges. Nokia played a very large role in the economy of Finland. It is an important
employer in Finland and works with multiple local partners and subcontractors. Nokia
contributed 1.6% to Finland's GDP, and accounted for about 16% of Finland's exports in
2006.

Nokia Networks

Nokia Networks was previously known as Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Nokia
Solutions and Networks (NSN), and is a multinational data networking and
telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It is the world's
fourth-largest telecoms equipment manufacturer measured by 2011 revenues (after Ericsson,
Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent). It has operations in around 150 countries.

The NSN brand identity was launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in
February 2007 as a joint venture between Nokia (50.1%) and Siemens (49.9%), but is now a
wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia. It provides wireless and fixed network infrastructure,
communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services to operators
and service providers. It focuses on GSM, EDGE, 3G/W-CDMA, LTE and WiMAX radio
access networks; core networks with increasing IP and multiaccess capabilities and services.

In July 2013, Nokia bought back all shares in Nokia Siemens Networks for a sum of US$2.21
billion and renamed it to Nokia Networks.

Nokia Technologies

Nokia Technologies is a division of Nokia that develops and licenses technology and the
Nokia brand.

Nokia Technologies consists of a development team in the fields of imaging, sensing,

wireless connectivity, power management and materials, and other areas such as the IP
licensing program. It consists of three labs: Radio Systems Lab, in areas of radio access,
wireless local connectivity, and radio implementation; Media Technologies Lab, in areas of
multimedia and interaction and Sensor and Material Technologies Lab, in areas of advanced
sensing solutions, interaction methods, nanotechnologies and quantum technologies. Nokia
Technologies also provides public participation in its development through the Invent with
Nokia program.

In November 2014, Nokia Technologies launched their first product, the Nokia N1 Android
5.0 tablet computer manufactured by Foxconn.

In July 2015, Nokia Technologies introduced a VR camera called OZO, designed for
professional content creators and developed in Tampere, Finland. With its 8 synchronized
shutter sensors and 8 microphones, the product can capture stereoscopic 3D video and spatial
audio.

From May 2016, Nokia Technologies' research and development team acts as the base for
future Nokia-branded devices created by HMD global.

On 31 May 2016, the Digital Health unit was founded. It is led by Cédric Hutchings, former
CEO of Withings which Nokia acquired.

Alcatel-Lucent

Nokia bought a share of 80% of Alcatel-Lucent, and took over the management control of the
company.

Nokia Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories became a subsidiary of Nokia Corporation after the takeover of Alcatel-
Lucent. It was subsequently renamed Nokia Bell Labs.
Corporate affairs

Nokia officially confirmed their comeback into smartphone business through the brand
licensing route. This way, Nokia will do the designing and a third party company called
HMD takes care of the manufacturing. More about it here. Nokia's return to smartphone
business

Corporate governance

The control and management of Nokia is divided among the shareholders at a general
meeting and the Nokia Leadership Team (left), under the direction of the board of directors
(right).The chairman and the rest of the Nokia Leadership Team members are appointed by
the board of directors. Only the Chairman of the Nokia Leadership Team can belong to both
the board of directors and the Nokia Leadership Team. The board of directors' committees
consist of the Audit Committee, the Personnel Committee and the Corporate Governance and
Nomination Committee.

The operations of the company are managed within the framework set by the Finnish
Companies Act, Nokia's Articles of Association[4] and Corporate Governance Guidelines,[68]
and related board of directors adopted charters.

Stock

Nokia is a public limited liability company and is the oldest company listed under the same
name on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, beginning in 1915. Nokia has had a secondary listing
on the New York Stock Exchange since 1994. Nokia shares were delisted from the London
Stock Exchange in 2003, the Paris Stock Exchange in 2004, the Stockholm Stock Exchange
in 2007 and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2012. Due to the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent
in 2015, Nokia listed its shares again on the Paris Stock Exchange and was included in the
CAC 40 index on 6 January 2016.

In 2007, Nokia had a market capitalisation of €110 billion; by July 17, 2012 this had fallen to
€6.28 billion; by 23 February 2015, the market cap had increased to €26.07 billion.
Corporate culture

Nokia's official corporate culture manifesto, The Nokia Way, emphasises the speed and
flexibility of decision-making in a flat, networked organization.

The official business language of Nokia is English. All documentation is written in English,
and is used in official intra-company spoken communication and e-mail.

In May 2007, Nokia redefined its values after initiating a series of discussions worldwide as
to what the new values of the company should be. Based on the employee suggestions, the
new values were defined as: Engaging You, Achieving Together, Passion for Innovation and
Very Human.

In August 2014, Nokia redefined its values after the sale of its Devices business. The new
values were defined with the key words Respect, Achievement, Renewal and Challenge.

Headquarters

The Nokia House (now Microsoft Talo) was Nokia's head office up until April 2014. The
building is located by the Gulf of Finland in Keilaniemi, Espoo, and was constructed between
1995 and 1997. It was the workplace of more than 1,000 Nokia employees.

The Nokia House was the head office building of Nokia Corporation, located in Keilaniemi,
Espoo, just outside Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The two southernmost parts of the
building were built in the early 1990s and the third, northernmost part was built in 2000.
Around 5000 employees work in the premises.

In December 2012, Nokia announced that it had sold its head office building to Finland-based
Exilion for €170 million and was leasing it back on a long term basis.

The building was sold to Microsoft as part of the sale of the mobile phone business in April
2014. The building was renamed to Microsoft Talo.

After the sale, Nokia has its headquarters in Karaportti, Espoo, Finland.
Controversies

NSN's provision of intercept capability to Iran

In 2008, Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens AG,
reportedly provided Iran's monopoly telecom company with technology that allowed it to
intercept the Internet communications of its citizens. The technology reportedly allowed Iran
to use deep packet inspection to read and even change the content of everything from "e-
mails and Internet phone calls to images and messages on social-networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter". The technology "enables authorities to not only block communication
but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation
purposes,"

During the post-election protests in Iran in June 2009, Iran's Internet access was reported to
have slowed to less than a tenth of its normal speeds, and experts suspected this was due to
the use of the interception technology.

In July 2009, Nokia began to experience a boycott of their products and services in Iran. The
boycott was led by consumers sympathetic to the post-election protest movement and
targeted at those companies deemed to be collaborating with the regime. Demand for
handsets fell and users began shunning SMS messaging.

The joint venture company, Nokia Siemens Networks, asserted in a press release that it
provided Iran only with a 'lawful intercept capability' "solely for monitoring of local voice
calls". "Nokia Siemens Networks has not provided any deep packet inspection, web
censorship or Internet filtering capability to Iran," it said.

Lex Nokia

In 2009, Nokia heavily supported a law in Finland that allows companies to monitor their
employees' electronic communications in cases of suspected information leaking. Contrary to
rumors, Nokia denied that the company would have considered moving its head office out of
Finland if laws on electronic surveillance were not changed. The Finnish media dubbed the
law Lex Nokia because it was implemented as a result of Nokia's pressure.
The law was enacted, but with strict requirements for implementation of its provisions. Until
February 2013, no company had used its provisions. On 25 February the Office of Data
Protection Ombudsman confirmed that city of Hämeenlinna had recently given the required

notice.

Nokia–Apple patent dispute

In October 2009, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court of
Delaware claiming that Apple infringed on 10 of its patents related to wireless
communication including data transfer. Apple was quick to respond with a countersuit filed
in December 2009 accusing Nokia of 11 patent infringements. Apple's General Counsel,
Bruce Sewell went a step further by stating, "Other companies must compete with us by
inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours." This resulted in an ugly spat
between the two telecom majors with Nokia filing another suit, this time with the U.S.
International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging Apple of infringing its patents in "virtually
all of its mobile phones, portable music players and computers." Nokia went on to ask the
court to ban all U.S. imports of the Apple products including the iPhone, Mac and the iPod.
Apple countersued by filing a complaint with the ITC in January 2010.

In June 2011, Apple settled with Nokia and agreed to an estimated one time payment of $600
million and royalties to Nokia. The two companies also agreed on a cross-licensing patents
for some of their patented technologies.
THE DOWNFALL

Nokia’s agreement in September 2013 to sell its handset business to Microsoft for $7.2
billion is something of a minor business coup for Nokia, since a year from now that business
might well turn out to have been worth nothing. It also demonstrates just how far and fast
Nokia has fallen in recent years. Not that long ago, it was the world’s dominant and pace-
setting mobile-phone maker. Today, it has just three per cent of the global smartphone
market, and its market cap is a fifth of what it was in 2007—even after rising more than thirty
per cent on Tuesday.
What happened to Nokia is no secret: Apple and Android crushed it. But the reasons for that
failure are a bit more mysterious. Historically, after all, Nokia had been a surprisingly
adaptive company, moving in and out of many different businesses—paper, electricity,
rubber galoshes. Recently, it successfully reinvented itself again. For years, the company had
been a conglomerate, with a number of disparate businesses operating under the Nokia
umbrella; in the early nineteen-nineties, anticipating the rise of cell phones, executives got rid
of everything but the telecom business. Even more strikingly, Nokia was hardly a
technological laggard—on the contrary, it came up with its first smartphone back in 1996,
and built a prototype of a touch-screen, Internet-enabled phone at the end of the nineties. It
also spent enormous amounts of money on research and development. What it was unable to
do, though, was translate all that R. & D. spending into products that people actually wanted
to buy.
One way to explain this is to point out that Nokia was an engineering company that needed
more marketing savvy. But this isn’t quite right; in the early aughts, Nokia was acclaimed for
its marketing, and was seen as the company that had best figured out how to turn mobile
phones into fashion accessories. It’s more accurate to say that Nokia was, at its heart, a
hardware company rather than a software company—that is, its engineers were expert at
building physical devices, but not the programs that make those devices work. In the end, the
company profoundly underestimated the importance of software, including the apps that run
on smartphones, to the experience of using a phone. Nokia’s development process was long
dominated by hardware engineers; software experts were marginalized. (Executives at Apple,
in stark contrast, saw hardware and software as equally important parts of a whole; they
encouraged employees to work in multidisciplinary teams to design products.)
It wasn’t just that Nokia failed to recognize the increasing importance of software, though. It
also underestimated how important the transition to smartphones would be. And this was, in
retrospect, a classic case of a company being enthralled (and, in a way, imprisoned) by its
past success. Nokia was, after all, earning more than fifty per cent of all the profits in the
mobile-phone industry in 2007, and most of those profits were not coming from smartphones.
Diverting a lot of resources into a high-end, low-volume business (which is what the touch-
screen smartphone business was in 2007) would have looked risky. In that sense, Nokia’s
failure resulted at least in part from an institutional reluctance to transition into a new era.
And there was another mistake. Nokia overestimated the strength of its brand, and believed
that even if it was late to the smartphone game it would be able to catch up quickly. Long
after the iPhone’s release, in fact, Nokia continued to insist that its superior hardware designs
would win over users. Even today, there are people who claim that if Nokia had stuck with its
own operating systems, instead of embracing the Windows Phone in 2011, it could have
succeeded. But even though the Windows Phone has been a flop, the truth is that, by 2010,
Nokia had already introduced too many disappointing phones, and its operating system had
already proven too buggy, clunky, and unintuitive to win consumers over. In 2008, Nokia
was said to have one of the most valuable brands in the world. But it failed to recognize that
brands today aren’t as resilient as they once were. The high-tech era has taught people to
expect constant innovation; when companies fall behind, consumers are quick to punish
them. Late and inadequate: for Nokia, it was a deadly combination.
A couple of years ago, Microsoft reached a deal to acquire Nokia's struggling devices and
services business, and just recently, the Finnish company sold its HERE mapping unit to a
group of German car-makers.
It’s true that Nokia had terrible last five years, but this doesn’t take away the fact that it was
this very company that effectively defined the mobile industry for over a decade prior, and
gave us some of the most memorable phones.
In this article, we take a trip down memory lane to revisit Nokia’s history, which - hold your
breath - spans a whopping 150 years.
Humble beginnings

While Nokia may remind most of us of only mobile phones, the company in fact started out
as a paper mill, which was established in 1865 by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam at the
Tammerkoski Rapids in south-western Finland.

However, the name Nokia wasn’t yet born. It was the location of his second mill - on the
banks of the Nokianvirta river - that inspired Idestam to name his company Nokia Ab,
something which happened in 1871. After around three decades, the company also ventured
into electricity generation.
Meanwhile, Eduard Polón founded Finnish Rubber Works in 1898, and Arvid Wickström
established Finnish Cable Works in 1912. In 1918, Finnish Rubber Works acquired Nokia to
secure access to the latter’s hydro-power resources, and in 1922, Finnish Cable Works was
also acquired by the newly formed conglomerate.
While the three companies were jointly owned, they continued to work independently until
1967, when they were finally merged and Nokia Corporation was born. The newly formed
company mainly focused on four markets: paper, electronics, rubber, and cable. It developed
things like toilet paper, bicycle and car tires, rubber footwear, TVs, communication cables,
robotics, PCs, and military equipment, among others.
Portfolio expansion
In 1979, Nokia entered into a joint venture with leading Scandinavian color TV manufacturer
Salora to create Mobira Oy, a radio telephone company. A few years later, Nokia launched
the world's first international cellular system dubbed Nordic Mobile Telephone network,
which linked Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. This was followed by the launch of
the company’s as well as world’s first car-phone dubbed Mobira Senator, which weighed in
at around 10 kg.

In 1984, Nokia acquired Salora and changed the name of its telecommunications unit to
Nokia-Mobira Oy. The year also marked the launch of Mobira Talkman, which was
advertised as one of the first transportable phones. This means it could be used both in and
out of car, although it was still around 5kg.
Three years later, the company introduced its first compact phone called Mobira Cityman
900, which was also the world's first hand-held mobile telephone. Despite weighing around
800g and carrying a price tag of around $5,456, it sold like hot cakes.

The phone became iconic and was nicknamed “The Gorba” after the then Soviet Union
president Mikhail Gorbachev used it to to make a call from Helsinki to Moscow during a
press conference in October 1987.

The following year brought a tough phase for the company as it witnessed sharp drop in
profits owing to severe price competition in the consumer electronics markets, and its
chairman Kari Kairamo committed suicide reportedly due to stress.
The new leadership brought changes, dividing the company into six units:
telecommunications, consumer electronics, cables and machinery, data, mobile phones, and
basic industries, while divesting other units like flooring, paper, rubber, and ventilation
systems. In 1989, Nokia-Mobira Oy became Nokia Mobile Phones.
Change in focus - mobile phones
In 1990’s, Nokia’s top leadership decided to focus solely on the telecommunications market,
and as a result, the company’s data, power, television, tire, and cable units were sold off in
the first few years of the decade.
In 1991, world’s first GSM call was made by the then Finnish prime minister, Harri Holkeri.
Unsurprisingly, it was made using Nokia equipment. The next year, the company’s first hand-
held GSM phone Nokia 1011 was launched.

The device reportedly had a talk time of 90 minutes and could store 99 contact numbers. It
was also known as Mobira Cityman 2000.
A couple of years later, the company launched its 2100 series of phones, which were also the
first to feature the iconic Nokia Tune ringtone. While Nokia projected to sell 400,000 units,
the series turned out to be a blockbuster with around 20 million handsets sold worldwide.

In 1996, Nokia 9000 Communicator was launched. The all-in-one phone, which carried a
price tag of $800, allowed users to send emails, fax, and browse web, besides offering word
processing and spreadsheet capabilities. Although the phone managed to create a dedicated
following, it wasn't commercially successful..
In the same year, the company also launched the Nokia 8110 slider phone. Nicknamed
"banana phone", the device featured in the popular 1999 science fiction action film The
Matrix.

World leader
The spectacular success of Nokia’s 6100 series - the company sold nearly 41 million cellular
phones in 1998 - helped the company surpass Motorola and become the world’s top cellular
phone maker in that year. It's worth mentioning that the Nokia 6110 was the first phone that
came with the classic Snake game pre-installed.

Nokia’s net sales increased over 50% year-on-year, operating profits shot up nearly 75%, and
stock price sky-rocketed a whopping 220%, resulting in an increase of market capitalization
from nearly $21 billion to around $70 billion.
The year 1998 also saw the company launching the Nokia 8810, its first phone without an
external antenna. The flagship was also one of the Nokia’s first phones with chrome slider
shell.

The next year saw the company launching the Nokia 3210. It was a solid handset that came in
six color variants and had a talk time of the impressive for the time 4- 5 hours.

In addition to offering extra ringtones and games, the device also allowed users to send pre-
installed picture messages (like Happy Birthday) via SMSs. Around 160 million units of the
handsets were sold, making it one of the most popular and successful phones in history.
The 2000s - a new era
Although Nokia was the world leader in the mobile phones market, the new decade brought
along a new set of challenges for the company. The wireless and Internet technologies were
converging, and the 3rd generation of wireless technology - that promised enhanced
multimedia capability - was evolving.
Responding to the changes, the Finnish company started churning out both sophisticated
multimedia handsets as well as low-end devices. The year 2001 saw the company launching
the Nokia 7650, it’s first phone to feature a built-in camera. It was also the first to sport a full
color display.
This was followed by the launch of its (as well as the world’s) first 3G phone, the Nokia
6650, in 2002.

The same year, the company also launched the Nokia 3650, the first Symbian Series 60
device to appear in the US market. It was also Nokia’s first phone to feature a video recorder.

In 2003, the company launched the Nokia 1100, a budget-friendly phone that sold around a
whopping 250 million units, making it the best selling phone as well as the best selling
consumer electronics product in the world. Incidentally, it was also the company’s billionth
phone sold later in 2005.

The year 2003 also saw the launch of the company’s unorthodox-looking N-Gage device.
Running Symbian OS 6.1 (Series 60), the phone/hand-held gaming system wasn’t much
successful commercially as only 3 million units were sold.

The following year, the Nokia 7280 "lipstick" phone was launched. Part of the company’s
"Fashion Phone" line, the device was listed as one of the best products of the year by Fortune
Magazine. It also featured in the Pussycat Dolls' "Beep" music video.

Midway through the decade, the company launched its N-series of phones, with the N70,
N90, and N91 being the first members of the series. The flagship N8 was launched later in
2010.

With Apple launching its first-generation iPhone in 2007 and the growing popularity of
touch-screen phones, Nokia outed its first all touch smartphone in 2008. Dubbed the 5800
Xpress Music, the device was also the first to run the touch-driven Symbian v9.4 (S60 5th
Edition). It was decently successful as the company managed to sell around 8 million units of
the device, but it didn't manage to create die-hard following as it touch-experience was sub-
par.
Early hiccups and the epic fall
It was the year 2001, when Nokia’s profits first crumbled after becoming the top phone
maker in the world. This was primarily due to a slowdown in mobile phone market. That
downfall turned out to be short-lived, but three years later, in 2004, the company again
reported that it’s market share is sliding, despite still leading with the solid 35%.
Another hiccup came in 2007, when the company had to recall a whopping 46 million faulty
cell-phone batteries. What’s even worse was that the batteries - which were manufactured
between 2005-end and 2006-end - appeared in a wide range of Nokia phones, which meant
that a large part of the company’s device portfolio was affected.
In 2008 - the same year when the Android version 1.0 was launched - Nokia’s Q3 profits
nosedived 30%, while sales decreased 3.1%. On the other hand, iPhone sales sky-rocketed by
around 330% during the same period.
The year 2009 saw Nokia laying off 1,700 employees worldwide. Later in the year, the
struggling Finnish company finally acknowledged that it was slow to react to the change in
the market, which was now slowly being taken over by the likes of Apple and BlackBerry,
and influenced by newcomers like Samsung, HTC, and LG.
The following year, Stephen Elop - who was previously head of Microsoft's business
software division - was appointed as Nokia’s new CEO. He was also the first non-Finnish
leader of the company. Although 2010 saw a rise in profits for the company, job cuts
continued.
Elop became famous for a speech that he delivered to Nokia employees in early 2011,
wherein he compared the company’s market position to a man standing on a "burning
platform." Quite evidently, the company’s situation was going from bad to worse.
Desperate to come out of the ongoing crisis and better compete with competitors, Nokia
announced a strategic partnership with software giant Microsoft to make the latter’s Windows
Phone its primary mobile OS.
Following the announcement, there were rumors that Microsoft is in talks to acquire the
struggling Finnish giant. However, at that point in time, Elop rubbished them as “baseless.”
Meanwhile, Apple overtook Nokia in smartphone sales in Q2, 2011.
The first fruit the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft bore were the Lumia 800 and
Lumia 710 smartphones, which were announced later in 2011. While the former (shown
below) targeted the higher end of the market, the latter was aimed at lower end-customers.
Although the company managed to beat market expectations by selling over a million units of
these devices in just a few months, job cuts continued. Meanwhile, in an effort to save more
expenses, the company also announced that it will close its oldest factory in Finland and shift
its manufacturing to Asia, which had become its largest market by then - all of this happened
in early 2012.
Despite decent sales, the new Windows Phone devices couldn’t do much for Nokia in Q1,
2012, when the company suffered an operating loss of a whopping €1.3 billion. This was
followed by another round of job cuts, affecting around 10,000 employees this time.
Later that year, the company launched Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 920 flagship,
which received mixed reviews - mainly criticized for its large size and bulkiness. In
November 2012, the smartphone became best-selling phone of the week on Amazon, and also
topped Expansys' chart in the UK during the same period - still it never quite reached the
blockbuster sales the company needed to return to profitability.

Finally, the year 2013 brought some good news as Nokia returned to profit six quarters of
bleeding money. However, revenue dropped considerably owing to the company’s failure to
make any dent in the smartphone market.
In September that year, Nokia announced it’s selling its Devices & Services division to
Microsoft.

The deal, which saw CEO Stephen Elop return to Microsoft, also included the Finnish
company's patents and mapping services, although it excluded the Nokia’s Chennai factory in
India as well as the Masan factory in South Korea. The sale officially completed in April
2014.
 THE COMEBACK

Nokia Mobile sold 4.4 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2017 and claimed
1% of the global market, according to research firm Counterpoint. That figure seems tiny, but
it makes Nokia the 11th largest smartphone brand in the world, putting it ahead
of HTC, Sony, Alphabet's Google, Lenovo, and Asus.

Nokia's comeback was fueled by robust sales in the U.K., Russia, Vietnam, and most Middle
East markets. It ranked in the top five across all of those markets and hit third place in the
U.K. for the first time during the quarter.

Nokia Mobile sold 8.7 million smartphones in 2017, its first full year after being "reborn"
under HMD Global in mid-2016. That's an incredible market debut compared with the
iPhone and Nokia Lumia -- which sold 1.7 million and 2.9 million devices, respectively, in
their first full year of sales.

This seems like great news for Nokia, but it only generates licensing revenue from sales of
these smartphones, because of the convoluted history of its mobile brand. Let's look back at
what happened to the Nokia brand over the past decade, and what its rebound in the mobile
market means for investors.

February 2017. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The big news was the return of a brand
that many have grown up with — Nokia. A revived edition of the iconic 3310 took centre
stage and suddenly the world forgot that the Finnish brand had been missing from action for
long. It was nostalgia at work. And HMD Global, the other Finnish company responsible for
Nokia’s revival, knew nostalgia alone wasn’t enough to make a brand survive.

For those who haven’t followed the story closely, here’s a recap. Nokia lost the battle to
Apple’s touchscreen technology and sold out to Microsoft in 2013 for $7.2 billion. But luck
didn’t favour the Bill Gates-Paul Allen-founded company and Microsoft sold the brand in
two parts in 2016 for $350 million. The brand name was sold to HMD Global, formed mostly
by former Nokia employees in Finland. The manufacturing arms of Nokia were bought by
iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, which also agreed to build the new Nokia phone for HMD.
Since December 2016, HMD Global has used its brand power to rollout 11 mobile phones in
11 months, with all of them proving to be a success. In fact, Nokia 8, the company’s flagship
product which launched last month, has taken the challenge to all the big names in the
market. And it has not just been about making a comeback; the brand is creating a buzz
among the youth with a feature called ‘bothie’ that fires up both the rear and front-facing
cameras at the same time, shooting video or photos to be shared live directly to Facebook or
YouTube. Wow!

So, why does Nokia still rock? Why is Nokia relevant to millennials? Why is Nokia still the
people’s brand? t2oS took the train from 55/56 Rapid Metro Station in Gurgaon in late
October. The fellow passenger? Pekka Rantala, the man who spent much of his career at
Nokia is now chief marketing officer of HMD Global. Excerpts from our conversation.

2007-2014: Losing the smartphone market

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, Nokia controlled over half of the global market
for smartphones, which were mostly considered pricey gadgets for enterprise users. In 2008,
Google introduced Android, a free open-source operating system (OS) for original equipment
manufacturers that wanted to quickly launch new devices to challenge the iPhone.

Nokia realized that Apple was developing the iPhone as early as 2005, but it didn't launch a
pre-emptive strike, because of the company's conservative management, overconfidence in its
brand, and misplaced faith in its Symbian OS. Nokia also failed to understand that Apple and
Google were pivoting smartphones toward mainstream consumers instead of enterprise ones.
By 2013, Nokia's share of the smartphone market had dropped to about 2%. The mobile
market had become a duopoly between Apple and Google, while mainstream consumers and
app developers shunned Symbian.
In 2014, Microsoft bought Nokia's handset business as a first-party platform for Windows
Phone, which was also struggling against iOS and Android. That eleventh-hour effort
flopped, resulting in a multibillion-dollar writedown for Microsoft a year later, and
Nokia/Microsoft's share of the smartphone market plunged below 1%. Last October,
Microsoft admitted that Windows Phone was a lost cause and announced that it would stop
developing new software and hardware for Windows 10 Mobile.
We can’t live in the past

We started our journey as HMD only 11 months ago, so we are a young start-up, a start-up
from Finland. It’s early days but when we began our journey last year, we were already
listening to phone buyers. We learnt that many didn’t feel secure about their smartphones.
We learnt that many were running old versions of their smartphone software. Many of them
were frustrated with preloaded software applications that came with their phones. These were
issues that were addressed by our special take on Android… keep it pure, secure and up to
date, providing frequent security updates, providing frequent software updates and not
loading anything extra to our devices.
We are working on a brand that everyone out there knows about. We are a brand that people
are still passionate about. There is so much equity we can leverage. We don’t want to live in
any kind of nostalgia world. We want to move forward and live in the present. We have been
and will be taking selective things from the past but those too need a modern spin. I
understand the word nostalgia. Many people out there — young or old — they consider retro
to be a phenomenon and we can benefit from that. But we can’t live in the past. So we will be
staying true to the core values of brand Nokia, which is about reliability, quality and trust.
And then there is innovation.

2015-2018: An unexpected comeback

When Nokia sold its handset unit to Microsoft, it didn't sell its brand. Instead, it signed a non-
compete agreement with Microsoft that barred it from selling Nokia-branded devices until the
end of 2016. That's why Microsoft rebranded its Nokia Lumia devices as "Microsoft Lumia"
in late 2014.
After sellling its handset unit to Microsoft, Nokia turned its attention toward its networking
equipment business. It then formed a new unit, Nokia Technologies, which housed its brand
licensing business. Since Nokia sold all its mobile device manufacturing facilities to
Microsoft, it couldn't simply start producing smartphones again.
Yet Nokia remained interested in mobile devices. In late 2014, Nokia partnered
with Foxconn to create the N1 Android tablet, a Nokia-designed device that Foxconn
manufactured, distributed, and sold. Foxconn shouldered all the production costs and reaped
the profits, while Nokia received licensing payments.
Nokia realized that it could apply the same strategy to smartphones after its non-compete
agreement with Microsoft expired. That's why private equity fund Smart Connect formed a
new company -- led by former Nokia executives -- called HMD Global in 2016.

HMD obtained the exclusive global license (excluding Japan) to create Nokia-branded
phones and tablets over the next decade, and it signed a contract to exclusively source the
production of the devices to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile.
HMD and FIH Mobile then co-purchased Nokia's feature-phone business from Microsoft,
completing the "rebirth" of Nokia's handset unit under a new banner.
HMD launched its first device, the Android-powered Nokia 6, for the Chinese market in early
2017. The market reception was surprisingly warm, and HMD subsequently launched the
Nokia 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 in other markets.
Counterpoint's latest numbers suggest that these devices are winning over consumers, thanks
to HMD's embrace of Android, low prices, positive reviews, and the nostalgic appeal of the
Nokia brand.

A new beginning

We have a wonderful marriage with Nokia Corporation and we haven’t just loaned a name
from them. It’s a new beginning. We want to be, once again, one of the leading mobile phone
players out there. We strongly believe that we can achieve that in both feature and
smartphone segments. We may reach the target quicker in the feature phone segment because
we have had a flying start and we inherited the feature phone business.
When it comes to smartphones, we have to innovate, which we have been doing for the last
11 months. Competition is tough and not a walk in the park. We need to make choices and we
need to listen to people. It’s not necessarily about looking at what competition is doing. We
are trying to have a good conversation with our consumers.
We know that Nokia is a unique brand (and not just a trademark) that has been around for
over 150 years. So, we have a big responsibility. The brand has always had a purpose and has
always been very different from any other tech products out there. And millennials always
look for brands with a purpose. We are that brand. Over 80 per cent of the Indian visitors to
our dot.com site or social media accounts are millennials. Which means we are moving in the
right direction.

We are taking India seriously

India is a very special place for us. The bonding between consumers here and the brand has
always been exceptional. In India, Nokia is everyone’s brand, which means we can be present
at every single price point. With our smartphone and feature phone range, we are covering a
number of relevant price points but, of course, we still feel it’s possible to evolve and develop
the portfolio further. We can always come up with products at price points that we haven’t
discovered yet. That we are taking India seriously can well be seen with the launch of Nokia
2 (will hit the market mid-November), which rolls out from your country.
We keep hearing about flagship model features cascading down to lower models of
smartphones. The most important feature of Nokia 2 can reverse the trend. Many people feel
frustrated and uncertain about the number of times one needs to charge the phone in a day.
Can I trust my phone if I am out for nine hours and even if I have to make calls, browse the
Net? Will my phone have enough charge? That’s why we decided to design a phone that
makes a perfect companion for two days. So two-day battery life is a promise we are giving
with Nokia 2. The two-day battery life of Nokia 2 isn’t there in Nokia 8. That’s a good
example of good things not always starting at the top. Even though it would be priced around
Euro 100, we haven’t compromised on quality. The phone is packed elegantly and has the
Nokia design. It’s a solid package.
Nokia has always been a brand that wants to democratise technology. We ensure that all our
phones are secure, be it Nokia 2 or Nokia 8. We are also partnering with companies that add
value to consumers, like Carl Zeiss, which is a 170-odd years old optical giant. You will see
more of this in the future. Moving forward, there will be more companion brands available.

A happy Finn

I admire the vibrancy of your country. All the people I have met here are full of energy and
always wanting to progress while looking at the future. This is as much home as Finland,
where people are emotional about Nokia. I get goosebumps when I speak about the
responsibility brand Nokia has in Finland (the company in its heyday contributed greatly to
Finland’s GDP). I am in a very lucky position because I get to do a job that I enjoy. But the
job also has a purpose and as a Finn, it’s a privilege to be a part of this journey. It’s on us to
bring back one of the most loved consumer brands of all time. Finland is now the first
country where our market share has exceeded 10 per cent. This has happened only in a few
months. They are proud and happy.
— Mathures Paul
Our mission is very simple. We want to be one of the top mobile phone players in the world
in the next couple of years, a journey in which India will play a crucial role. By the end of the
year, we will be selling in 100,000 stores. Since we started 11 months ago, India has
contributed significantly to our growth story. We see maximum engagement on our social
media from India. India is in the top three countries in terms of Nokia smartphone activation
— Florian Seiche, HMD Global CEO
The man spearheading the plans to revive a phone brand that many Indians consider their
own is the kati-roll loving, cheese-omelette chomping Ajey Mehta, vice-president, India,
HMD Global. Though his job has taken him all over the world, he returns to Calcutta now
and then to be with his parents who live in New Alipore. “Calcutta at its heart is always the
same. I remember hanging out at The Saturday Club, having cheese omelette. Calcutta taught
me simple living and high thinking. I do believe having your feet planted on the ground is
very important to being happy. The city has given me a lot.” Here’s what the man told t2oS
over coffee.

Redefining and reinventing Nokia

Our target consumers are the purpose-seeking millennials. The Nokia of the old and the
Nokia of the new, what remains common are the core values — simplicity, reliability,
transparency... these are aspects we want to stay true to. What worked then, will not work
now. Legacy is good but legacy can also pull you back. We are in the process of redefining
and reinventing Nokia on the same core values.
Here’s a story. When we launched the 3310, the first person to call me was my niece. At that
time we didn’t realise the demand that was there in the market. She calls me and asks for a
3310. She also said she wanted 20 pieces of the 3310! Obviously, I couldn’t give her that.
Nokia has this very unique appeal to the millennial.
Our focus is on providing the best Android experience. So, when I hear other companies
offering stock Android, I really feel flattered because it’s something we started talking about;
the others have joined in. We believe in what we want to deliver and not base our proposition
on what others are doing. I want to continue pursuing what Nokia stands for, otherwise we
will be chasing our tail.

What does this mean for Nokia?

Nokia Technologies' revenue rose 57% annually in fiscal 2017 and accounted for 7% of its
top line. The unit's operating profit surged 94% and accounted for 43% of Nokia's operating
income.
Nokia doesn't disclose how much of the total comes from HMD's licensing payments, but
rising sales of its new smartphones would definitely bolster the business. The growth of that
high-margin business would offset the softer growth of its core Nokia Networks business,
which still faces tough competition from rivals such as Huawei and Ericsson.
It was the year 2001, when Nokia’s profits first crumbled after becoming the top phone
maker in the world. This was primarily due to a slowdown in mobile phone market. That
downfall turned out to be short-lived, but three years later, in 2004, the company again
reported that its market share is sliding, despite still leading with the solid 35%.

Another hiccup came in 2007, when the company had to recall a whopping 46 million faulty
cell-phone batteries. What’s even worse was that the batteries - which were manufactured
between 2005-end and 2006-end - appeared in a wide range of Nokia phones, which meant
that a large part of the company’s device portfolio was affected.

In 2008 - the same year when the Android version 1.0 was launched - Nokia’s Q3 profits
nosedived 30%, while sales decreased 3.1%. On the other hand, iPhone sales sky-rocketed by
around 330% during the same period.

The year 2009 saw Nokia laying off 1,700 employees worldwide. Later in the year, the
struggling Finnish company finally acknowledged that it was slow to react to the change in
the market, which was now slowly being taken over by the likes of Apple and BlackBerry,
and influenced by newcomers like Samsung, HTC, and LG.

The following year, Stephen Elop - who was previously head of Microsoft's business
software division - was appointed as Nokia’s new CEO. He was also the first non-Finnish
leader of the company. Although 2010 saw a rise in profits for the company, job cuts
continued.

Elop became famous for a speech that he delivered to Nokia employees in early 2011,
wherein he compared the company’s market position to a man standing on a "burning
platform." Quite evidently, the company’s situation was going from bad to worse.

Desperate to come out of the ongoing crisis and better compete with competitors, Nokia
announced a strategic partnership with software giant Microsoft to make the latter’s Windows
Phone its primary mobile OS.
Following the announcement, there were rumors that Microsoft is in talks to acquire the
struggling Finnish giant. However, at that point in time, Elop rubbished them as “baseless.”
Meanwhile, Apple overtook Nokia in smartphone sales in Q2, 2011.

The first fruit the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft bore were the Lumia 800 and
Lumia 710 smartphones, which were announced later in 2011. While the former (shown
below) targeted the higher end of the market, the latter was aimed at lower end-customers.

Although the company managed to beat market expectations by selling over a million units of
these devices in just a few months, job cuts continued. Meanwhile, in an effort to save more
expenses, the company also announced that it will close its oldest factory in Finland and shift
its manufacturing to Asia, which had become its largest market by then - all of this happened
in early 2012.

Despite decent sales, the new Windows Phone devices couldn’t do much for Nokia in Q1,
2012, when the company suffered an operating loss of a whopping €1.3 billion. This was
followed by another round of job cuts, affecting around 10,000 employees this time.

Later that year, the company launched Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 920 flagship,
which received mixed reviews - mainly criticized for its large size and bulkiness. In
November 2012, the smartphone became best-selling phone of the week on Amazon, and also
topped Expansys' chart in the UK during the same period - still it never quite reached the
blockbuster sales the company needed to return to profitability.

Finally, the year 2013 brought some good news as Nokia returned to profit six quarters of
bleeding money. However, revenue dropped considerably owing to the company’s failure to
make any dent in the smartphone market.

In September that year, Nokia announced it’s selling its Devices & Services division to
Microsoft.

The deal, which saw CEO Stephen Elop return to Microsoft, also included the Finnish
company's patents and mapping services, although it excluded the Nokia’s Chennai factory in
India as well as the Masan factory in South Korea. The sale officially completed in April
2014.

The other reason is smartphone, a smartphone is a mobile phone with an advanced mobile
operating system which combines features of a personal computer operating system with
other features useful for mobile or handheld use. Smartphones, which are usually pocket-
sized, typically combine the features of a cell phone, such as the ability to receive and make
phone calls and text messages, with those of other popular digital mobile devices. Other
features typically include a personal digital assistant (PDA) for making appointments in a
calendar, media player, video games, GPS navigation unit, digital camera, and digital video
camera. Most smartphones can access the Internet and can run a vareity of third-party
software components ("apps"). They typically have a color graphical user interface screen
that covers 70% or more of the front surface, with an LCD, OLED, AMOLED, LED, or
similar screen; the screen is often a touchscreen.

In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass
adoption within a country. Smartphones became widespread in the 21st century and most of
those produced from 2012 onwards have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion
sensors, and mobile payment features. In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones
were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell
phones in early 2013.As of 2013, 65% of U.S. mobile consumers own smartphones. By
January 2016, smartphones held over 79% of the U.S. mobile market.

We cannot held smartphone solely responsible for the downfall of nokia basically it was the
of a type of smartphone that did this i.e. the android smartphone. Android is a mobile
operating system developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for
touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android's user interface is
mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-
world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along
with a virtual keyboard for text input. In addition to touchscreen devices, Google has further
developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Android Wear for wrist
watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on
notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.
Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems of any kind. Android has been
the best selling OS on tablets since 2013, and on smartphones it is dominant by any metric.

Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in
2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance – a consortium of hardware,
software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile
devices. As of July 2013, the Google Play store has had over one million Android
applications ("apps") published – including many "business-class apps" that rival competing
mobile platforms – and over 50 billion applications downloaded. An April–May 2013 survey
of mobile application developers found that 71% of developers create applications for
Android, and a 2015 survey found that 40% of full-time professional developers see Android
as their priority target platform, which is comparable to Apple's iOS on 37% with both
platforms far above others. In September 2015, Android had 1.4 billion monthly active users.

Android's source code is released by Google under open source licenses, although most
Android devices ultimately ship with a combination of open source and proprietary software,
including proprietary software required for accessing Google services. Android is popular
with technology companies that require a ready-made, low-cost and customizable operating
system for high-tech devices. At the same time, as Android has no centralised update system
most Android devices fail to receive security updates: research in 2015, concluded that
almost 90% of Android phones in use had known but unpatched security vulnerabilities due
to lack of updates and support. Its open nature has encouraged a large community of
developers and enthusiasts to use the open-source code as a foundation for community-driven
projects, which deliver updates to older devices, add new features for advanced users or bring
Android to devices originally shipped with other operating systems. The success of Android
has made it a target for patent (and copyright) litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone
wars" between technology companies.
Q1.Are you

Sex of the respondants No. Of respondants

Male 13
Female 7
Total 20

No. Of respondants

7
Male
13
Female

Q2. What is your age?

Age of respondants No. Of respondants

18-24 6
25-34 4
35-44 3
45-54 3
55-64 2
65 or above 2
Total 20

No. Of respondants
2 2 6
18-24
3
25-34
3 4
35-44
45-54
Q3. Have you ever used Nokia Mobile phones?

Options No of response
YES 17
NO 3
Total 20

No of response

3
YES
17 NO

Q4. Did you found it better than other mobile phones of its kind?

Options No of response
YES 12
NO 8
Total 20

No of response

8
YES
12
NO
Q5. Which type of mobile phone did you used?

Options No of response
Simple Mobile Phone 8
Smartphone 4
Total 12

No of response

4
Simple Mobile Phone
8 Smartphone

Q6. What was the Operating System of your Nokia Smartphone?

Options No of response
Windows 3
Android 1
Total 4

No of response

1
Windows
3 Android
Q7. Do you think the idea of selling itself to Microsoft was a good decision by Nokia?

Options No of response
YES 15
No 5
Total 20

No of response

5
YES
15 No

Q8. Do you want Nokia to come back?

Options No of response
YES 18
No 2
Total 20

No of response

YES
No
18
 CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 CONCLUSION

The Finnish company’s unwillingness to embrace drastic change when it was required the
most was probably the biggest reason that brought the mobile giant down. The company took
way too long to embrace the smartphone revolution and when it finally did it made way too
many errors in its strategy.

First, Nokia tried to compete by simply adding touch to the legacy Symbian - a patch that
failed to deliver the fluid user experience of its rivals at the time. Then the switch to
Windows Phone was announced way before there was actual hardware ready - a move that
Elop hoped will boost developer interest, but ended up mostly killing Symbian sales 7
months before Nokia had an alternative to offer. Two mistakes of that magnitude, combined
with the great delay in jumping to touchscreen were enough to cost the company's dominant
position in the quickly moving market.

Rubber roots

Nokia wasn't going completely away. Beyond mobile devices, the company's telecom
infrastructure business, mapping services, and advanced technology division will continue
operating under the Nokia brand. It's the latest incarnation of a 150-year-old business that can
trace its origins back to making rubber galoshes.

Rise of the Razr

While most of the world was gobbling up Nokia's steady menu of candy bar-shaped
cellphones, consumers in North America began eyeing flip phones, handsets with a clamshell
design.

Motorola, mounting a comeback of its own, led the charge for flip phones, and cemented the
trend with the debut of the ultra-slim Razr in late 2004. It remains one of the most successful
cellphones ever, reigning as a top seller for nearly three years.
Apple's smartphone revolution

Contrary to public misperception, Apple did not invent the smartphone. Before Steve Jobs'
touchscreen powerhouse came on the scene, Nokia was the leader in the smartphone
business, owning roughly half the market.

But what the iPhone brought to the market was a new sense of what a smartphone could do,
and who could benefit from such a device: virtually everything and everyone. Apple led the
charge in turning the smartphone into a consumer device from one primarily used in a
corporate setting, a notion that then-Research in Motion had scratched at the year before with
its compact and consumer friendly BlackBerry Pearl.

The original iPhone. Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com

Jumping off a "Burning Platform"

After four middling years with Nokia veteran Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo at the helm, the
company's board opted to go with an outsider. In came former Microsoft executive Stephen
Elop, who was unburdened with the institutional baggage that had developed at the company.

Just a few months after taking over in September 2010, Elop made waves with his infamous "
Burning Platform" memo, which called for the company to take drastic action to change or
die. That change came in the form of Nokia dumping Symbian and its burgeoning Meego
platforms and betting on his former employer's Windows Phone platform for its high-end
smartphones.

Innovating with Lumia

Roughly a year later, during the debut of the Lumia 920 , Elop boldly touted the phone as the
most innovative in the industry.

It wasn't simple marketing bluster. The Lumia 920 featured an ultra-sensitive touchscreen
that your fingers could swipe even if you had gloves on. It was one of the first phones to
popularize wireless charging - complete with color-coordinated wireless charging
accessories.
That Nokia could fall so low serves as a lesson to all handset vendors. As dominant as
Samsung and Apple are, Nokia was even bigger in its prime. Perhaps Microsoft and Elop can
continue to build the Lumia brand with more advanced bells and whistles. But sometimes, I
do miss the simplicity of the 5190, stubby antenna and all.

The Finnish company’s unwillingness to embrace drastic change when it was required the
most was probably the biggest reason that brought the mobile giant down. The company took
way too long to embrace the smartphone revolution and when it finally did it made way too
many errors in its strategy.

First, Nokia tried to compete by simply adding touch to the legacy Symbian - a patch that
failed to deliver the fluid user experience of its rivals at the time. Then the switch to
Windows Phone was announced way before there was actual hardware ready - a move that
Elop hoped will boost developer interest, but ended up mostly killing Symbian sales 7
months before Nokia had an alternative to offer. Two mistakes of that magnitude, combined
with the great delay in jumping to touchscreen were enough to cost the company's dominant
position in the quickly moving market.

Anyway, as they say, nothing is permanent and whatever goes up must come down.
However, that doesn’t take away the fact that Nokia remains a huge part of mobile phone
history that will never be forgotten.
After the iPhone and Android devices entered the smartphone scene, they changed the entire
industry. The formerly-dominant companies in this space - RIM, Nokia, and Palm to name a
few - couldn't catch up fast enough. Nokia, which was the giant to beat at the time, quickly
found itself bleeding and struggling to maintain its once dominant market share before
Microsoft bought its mobile devices division.

So why are we now seeing Nokia-branded phones in 2017, years after Nokia seemingly left
the competitive smartphone marketplace? The answer lies in a somewhat-complicated history
of poor choices, acquisitions, and licensing deals.

The burning platform

To better understand why Nokia is only coming back now, it helps to understand how the
company ended up selling its entire mobile division in the first place. A good place to start is
in 2010, when Stephen Elop became Nokia's CEO. Before this, he was the head of
Microsoft's Business Division, and was responsible for overseeing projects like Microsoft
Office.

By this time, the iPhone had been around for three years, and Android for two. Nokia's
primary operating system at the time was Symbian, which was still the dominant mobile OS
at 37% market share. In an attempt to keep up with the competition, Nokia had partnered with
Intel to create MeeGo. But in early 2011, Stephen Elop issued the now-famous "Burning
platform" memo.

The roughly 1,300-word letter likened Symbian to a burning oil platform, and said that Nokia
would need to jump off it to survive. Elop shared his disappointment with Symbian and
MeeGo, saying "The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is
close to their experience." This is perhaps the most important snippet of the entire letter:

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not
only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce,
advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and
many other things. Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are
taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we're going to have to decide
how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

At the end, Elop wrote that Nokia would announce a new strategy "to rebuild our market
leadership" on February 11. On that date, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft.

The Windows Phone years

With its new partnership, Nokia placed its trust in Windows Phone as the company's platform
moving forward. MeeGo wasn't shipped on any Nokia devices except the N9, and the
company's last phone with Symbian was the Nokia 808 in 2012. Elop later said that he
wanted Nokia to use Windows Phone instead of Android to differentiate the company from
competitors.

The first Nokia Windows Phone was the Lumia 800, released in November 2011. While
initially sales of the 800 and similar devices were good, competition from iPhone and
Android was a major problem. Poor Lumia sales led the company close to bankruptcy in mid-
2012. The Lumia 920 and Asha feature phones increased the company's market share, but
didn't do much for Nokia's profits.

Finally in September 2013, Nokia announced it would sell its mobile devices division to
Microsoft. It would become the Microsoft Mobile division, and fulfill the plan of Microsoft's
then-CEO Steve Ballmer to produce more hardware. As part of the deal, Nokia CEO Stephen
Elop would return to Microsoft.

Interestingly, the company announced a line of Android devices called Nokia X before the
purchase was finalized in April 2014. Nokia X, along with the Asha product lineup, was
killed off by Microsoft a few months later.
Licensing and HMD Global

Per its agreement with Microsoft, Nokia was not allowed to sell smartphones with its own
brand until the end of 2016, and feature phones for the next 10 years. But that didn't stop
Nokia from moving to other segments, and just days after the purchase finalized, work began
on the Nokia N1 tablet.

In November 2014, Ramzi Haidamus (president of Nokia technologies) explained that Nokia
would begin licensing the Nokia brand to other manufacturers. The next day, the Android-
based Nokia N1 tablet was announced - which was designed by Nokia and manufactured by
Foxconn.

The Nokia N1 tablet

The N1 was released in January 2015, but there wasn't any new announcements or releases of
consumer hardware from Nokia for the rest of the year. Then in 2016, Microsoft decided to
sell Nokia's feature phone business to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile and a Finnish firm
called HMD Global.

At the same time, Nokia announced a partnership with HMD Global, which would become
the sole licensee of the Nokia brand for phones. This meant HMD would become the only
manufacturer of both Nokia feature phones and smartphones. BlackBerry has made a similar
partnership with TCL, tasking it to manufacture all future BlackBerry devices.

The first Nokia device by HMD was the Nokia 150, a $26 feature phone. In January 2017, the
Android-based Nokia 6 was released in China. At Mobile World Congress, HMD revealed
the Nokia 5, Nokia 3, and a revamped Nokia 3310.
The 'real' Nokia

You could certainly make the argument that the HMD-manufactured Nokia phones aren't
really Nokia phones. Nokia's old mobile devices division is still part of Microsoft, although it
recently stopped manufacturing Lumia devices altogether.

It's not clear exactly what level of involvement in design that Nokia has over the new HMD
devices. Considering Nokia was the sole designer of its earlier N1 tablet, the company is
likely more involved with its branded devices than, say, Polaroid or RCA. On top of that,
HMD is operated by Nokia veterans and is also based in Finland.

Whether or not you see HMD Global's Nokia lineup as 'real' Nokia devices is up to you, but it
is as close as we're going to get.
 RECOMMENDATIONS

Most of us know “what” Nokia is, but we’ve forgotten “who” Nokia is. In a smartphone
industry dominated by lifestyle brands like Apple, Nokia lost its connection with its brand
purpose, “Connecting People,” and ultimately the customer, by failing to recognize (in our
transmedia world) that brand is not marketing – it’s more about defining “who” you are. That
requires (re)building the four cornerstones of successful brands.

 First, Nokia needs to power up the brand strategy, “Connecting People,” that’s perfect
for the lower-end smartphones market. It can also act as a lens helping Nokia see
choices through the smoke, be able to review business options, including partnerships,
and act as a decision-making tool, for example, in innovation, a key area where Nokia
struggled to produce the right goods at the right time. This has been compounded by
Nokia’s marketing myopia and inability to handle multiple tactics from a single brand
strategy, for example, retail.

 Second, Nokia needs the leadership to demonstrate (not assert) that it can turn the
hard into the possible. Given the chronic debilitation of brand value, Nokia’s
leadership is perceived as groveling in a frivolous pit laden with debt. “Elop is cutting
costs and hoping for a miracle, but it looks like Nokia is staying on death row,” said
John Strand, founder of Danish industry consultancy Strand Consult. Therefore,
Stephen Elop needs to allay people’s fears, especially partners and employees, while
pursuing opportunities to fund growth by cutting costs to focus on lower-end
smartphones and a Windows ecosystem.

 This new focus requires senior management at Nokia to rally not just with cost
reduction, but to align themselves and all partners and agencies around the strategy –
leaving their egos and business cards at the door. This third cornerstone is
exceptionally difficult when you have a brand deracinated by a business in free fall,
eagerly watched by media in a frenzy that smells blood and a customer base that
doesn’t “emotionally” hold your brand in high esteem when considering what phone
to buy. Nokia urgently needs a cheap killer product – the upmarket Lumia phones
won some good reviews, but not many customers.
 Nokia knows word of mouth is the No. 1 influencer of purchase. To get customers
engaged Nokia needs to inspire an authentic community who like Nokia and rapidly
mobilize a colossal resurgence of its customer base. Elop could make it happen, but
he’s the CEO, not the consumer, and it is a very large ship to turn; ratings agency
Fitch said on Friday that Nokia had little time left to turn itself around. Some say cash
flow is the problem right now and the writing is on the wall, but Nokia has saved
themselves seven times in 147 years, and it has Microsoft in its wallet.

 Nokia can be fashionable again. A reputation for solid manufacturing infrastructure

and excellent risk management and supply-chain principles worked in the past to
increase customer satisfaction and revenues, but they need the power of brand to save
them now. “Connecting People” is one of the best brand ideas you can get, and Elop
needs to empower the brand with that halo to support the new business plan (with
Microsoft). For it to succeed Nokia needs a new, more revolutionary idea to whip up
support from the media, inspire their customer base and spur growth. Many people
retain a soft spot for Nokia and “shareability” is the new ROI – “Connecting People”
would be the optimum place to start.

 No matter whether you are at the top of your game or not but there is always someone
that is the customer. If you think that customer rely upon you and will have to buy
what you will serve then you are totally wrong as customer doesn’t work according to
you neither do the competitors. If any other brand served what the customer want or
what can influence the customer then customer will switch to him.

 One should see what the customer wants and should analyse it no matter the other has
offered it before it or not. If you have a band of loyal customers then you should take
the advantage of your goodwill and serve the same. As they will buy it from their
favourite brand only.

 No matter what happens! “You rise to fall and you fall to rise again.” One should
understand that life doesn’t end when you fail. You should take it as a new life that
you got to make the things right that you failed to do in the past life. And it’s never
late to correct your mistakes.