The smartphone world came grinding to a halt when Microsoft announced they were purchasing the mobile division of Nokia for a crazy (but well worth it) $7.17 billion. They're not just getting a bunch of indestructable cell phones though: with the purchase, Microsoft is taking on more than 150 years of history. That's right. Nokia has been around since the mid-1800s, having survived thick and thin in a changing world that's always hungry for more technology. As Microsoft readies to suck the soul out of the company when the transaction is completed next year, here are the Most Interesting Things You Didn't Know About Nokia, the company that pushed your phone into becoming what it is today.
The company has been around for about 150 years. Founder Fredrik Idestam opened a wood pulp mill in 1865, which made an important piece of communication technology: paper.
Nokia got its name from the town of Nokia, near the Nokianvirta river in Finland. Idestam opened his second mill in 1871, and named it Nokia Ab.
Nokia acquired a rubber factory, Finnish Rubber Works, near the turn of the century, which added rubber products, like tires, to their inventory.
One of the products from the acquisition were rubber boots called "galoshes," which were once a design staple of Nokia.
In 1912, Finnish Cable Works is founded, and later becomes the arm of Nokia's cable and electronics business.
Nokia made is first in-house electronic device in 1962: a pulse analyser for use in nuclear power plants.
From the 1960s to 1980s, the company made a gas mask called the M-61 for the Finnish Defense Forces.
Nokia made an industrial robot in 1985 called the NS-16.
In 1982, Nokia introduced the first car phone, which they dubbed the Mobira Senator.
Nokia got a big publicity boost when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was pictured using a Mobira Cityman to make a call from Helsinki to Moscow in 1987. The phone was soon nicknamed "Gorba."
The famous Nokia ringtone? It's from a song called "Gran Vals" by Spanish classical guitarist Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902.
The "Special" SMS text message tone on Nokia devices is actually Morse code for "SMS".
Also, the "Ascending" text tone in Nokia's are Morse code for "Connecting People," the company's slogan.
The classic mobile game, "Snake," was first launched on a Nokia 6110 in 1997.
In 2005, the Nokia N70 became the first smartphone with a dedicated camera shutter button.
When Nokia's doomed N-Gage was released, they said they had sold over 400,000 in its first two weeks. Nope, not really: they only sold 5,000.
Four doesn't appear in many Nokia phone model numbers in Asia, because it's considered an unlucky number in some parts of the continent.
THIS was once their logo.
