Nokia company history timeline

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 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 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, someth