The Real Reason Nokia Is Still Alive — It Wasn't Phones

In 2007, almost four in ten phones sold on Earth were Nokias. Five years later, its share price was 98% below its record high from 2000. So why is Nokia still here, still making money, and why is there a good chance your phone's signal runs through Nokia equipment? This is the story of a Finnish paper mill that became a phone empire, the decision that wiped it out, and the boring business that kept it alive. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 1:02 Paper, Rubber and Cable 3:36 The Bet 6:00 Four in Ten 7:26 The Crack 9:56 The Burning Platform 13:35 The Other Nokia 16:15 Why It's Still Alive Sources Market values are calculated from daily share prices and an estimated share count, so they are approximate. Nokia's value today changes every day; the figure in the video is from October 2026. Phone sales and market share, 2007 https://techcrunch.com/2008/02/27/over-a-billion-mobile-phones-sold-in-2007/ https://www.telecompaper.com/news/mobile-handsets-shipped-during-q4-touch-334-mln-idc--593716 https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/report-nokia-s-smartphone-market-share-dropping https://www.mobileworldlive.com/apple/gartner-smartphone-growth-declines-as-nokia-falls/ Share price, peak and bottom (Nasdaq Helsinki, NOKIA.HE) https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NOKIA.HE/history/ Nokia's weight in Finland's economy (ETLA) https://www.etla.fi/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/B162.pdf https://www.etla.fi/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/B244.pdf Finland's GDP, growth and unemployment (World Bank) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CN?locations=FI https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=FI https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS?locations=FI Finland's economy after 2012 https://stat.fi/til/vtp/2012/vtp_2012_2013-03-01_kat_001_en.html https://www.etla.fi/en/latest/news-and-press-releases/global-growth-continues-slow-finlands-gdp-grow-0-3-cent-2013/ Company history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nokia https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/106742-biggest-selling-mobile-phone How Nokia lost the smartphone battle (Vuori and Huy, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2016) https://aalto.fi/en/news/nokia-analysis-made-it-to-top-publication-in-organisational-and-managerial-research The burning platform memo and the Microsoft deal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop https://www.communicatemagazine.com/news/2011/2341-qwe-are-standing-on-a-burning-platformq-nokia-ceos-memo-leaks https://time.com/archive/6595534/nokias-lifeline https://www.manufacturing.net/home/news/13197711/nokia-ceo-under-heavy-fire-for-microsoft-alliance https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2013/01/23Apple-Reports-Record-Results/ Salo https://www.fin24.com/Companies/ICT/Nokias-long-goodbye-20120625?cpid=1 The sale to Microsoft https://news.microsoft.com/2011/05/10/microsoft-to-acquire-skype/ https://news.microsoft.com/2013/09/03/microsoft-to-acquire-nokias-devices-services-business-license-nokias-patents-and-mapping-services/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/25/microsofts-7-2bn-acquisition-of-nokias-devices-business-is-now-complete/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/08/microsoft-writes-down-7-6b-of-its-nokia-acquisition-announces-7800-layoffs Nokia today https://www.nokia.com/newsroom/nokia-corporation-financial-report-for-q4-2025-and-full-year-2025/ https://bell-labs.com/about-us/news/releases/2025/02/28/nokia-completes-acquisition-of-infinera-to-create-innovation-powerhouse-in-optical-networks-with-the-scale-to-power-the-data-center-revolution https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-nvidia-backs-nokia-ai-networks-2025/ https://futurumgroup.com/insights/nokia-q2-fy-2026-optical-strength-positions-nokia-for-the-ai-buildout/ Thumbnail photo: Nokia 3310 by Multicherry (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Thumbnail photo: Jensen Huang by Anderseidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Thumbnail photo: Stephen Elop by Luca Sartoni, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons