Nokia

Finland's Nokia is one of the oldest brands in telecom. The company has been around since 1871 but it did not start making cell phones until 1982. It would eventually grow to become the largest phone manufacturer in the world. Today's Nokia, however, is not what it used to be but for a different reason you might think now.

Snake

Say Nokia, you think Snake! For those who sometimes long for old times too, you can replay the game below. Will you break your old highscore?

Nokia history

Nokia was founded in 1871 by Fredrik Idestam and Leo Mechelin in the Finnish village of Nokia. The company has a rich history of business activities ranging from wood pulp, car tires, cables, electronics and even gas masks. By 1977, under the leadership of CEO Kari Kairamo, Nokia would focus solely on consumer electronics. After several corporate acquisitions, Nokia focused on products such as computers, televisions and cell phones. In these it was very successful, at one point Nokia was the 2nd largest TV manufacturer in Europe. But really big became Nokia after it started focusing solely on telecom in 1992.

The rise of the GSM network would lead to staggering sales numbers of Nokia phones. In the "Top 10 Best Selling Phones Ever," Nokia takes a whopping 7 spots. As many as 250 million copies of the No. 1; the Nokia 1110, were sold. The company also had success in the smartphone industry with the Nseries whose camera features were mainly praised.

However, the Symbian platform proved no match for the touch-sensitive iPhones and low-cost Android smartphones. Sales went into free fall starting in 2009 after which, in 2011, under the leadership of former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop, it would focus entirely on Windows Phone. A strategic mistake as it would later turn out. The company recorded loss after loss from 2011 due to the lack of success and departing Symbian customers. To keep its head above water, in 2013 it saw no other option than to sell its entire phone division to Microsoft. The company would never again release its own Nokia phone and began to focus primarily on selling network equipment for the telecom market.

Microsoft also did little with the acquired Nokia division. It sent home the acquired 7,800 employees, wrote off $7.6 billion and stopped developing Windows Phone / 10 Mobile. Microsoft sold the right to make phones under the Nokia name to Finland's HMD Global. Those phones are made by China's Foxconn and bear the Nokia name but are not designed, made or sold by Nokia.

HMD Global

Founded in 2016 by former Nokia executives, HMD Global released its first phone under the Nokia name in 2017. The company focuses mainly on Google's Android One platform that allows it to release updates quickly and support phones for a long time. A formula appreciated by consumers as Nokia finally returned to the "Top 10 Best Selling Phone Brands" list in 2018. Remarkable for a company that hardly anyone knows by its own name.

Android One

Current Nokia phones on sale run Android One. That is a pure version of Android that must meet a strict standard set by Google. Smartphones with Android One can therefore be updated quickly and feel almost the same among themselves because no so-called skin (also called interface) is used. HMD Global's models stand out on price point and camera features. The company was among the first to release premium high-end Android One models and continues the old Nokia collaboration with Germany's Carl Zeiss.

Nokia icons

Chances are your first mobile was a Nokia. The company sold billions of devices and some models grew to be true icons. For example, the Nokia 3310 of which an estimated 126 million units crossed the counter. The simple model was virtually indestructible and featured the popular game Snake. HMD Global even released a remake of it in 2017.

Other notable icons include the 1996 Communicator that is considered one of the first smartphones and the Nokia 8110 that figured in the movie The Matrix with its slide mechanism. The company was also strong in trying out odd shapes such as the swivel 3250, buttonless 7280, keypad-opening 6810, the 3650 with its round keypad and the F1 handlebar-shaped 3300.

At its peak, however, it was the multimedia N-series and business E-series models that stole the show. The N95 and E71 went over the counter frequently. Nokia also scored high for some time with its Ngage models that were primarily focused on gaming.