Before the iPhone, there was Nokia. The mobile phone has evolved enormously since it became widespread in society during the 1990s. This period is marked by the domination of a Finnish brand Nokia. For years, the firm was a must-have with its phones and Aalto University decided to revive this period with the Nokia Design Archive. These online archives, accessible free of charge, offer a unique insight into the mechanisms of a tech company that is shaking up the way we connect to the world.
“In the 1990s and 2000s, millions of people around the world bought their first cell phone. These devices were not intelligent. We couldn’t take photos, share content, or respond instantly to any question. But for the first time, everyday people could chat on the go, text, and play Snake. The impact on our way of life would be transformative,” says Aalto University.
The portal contains a wealth of sketches, photographs, presentations and even interviews covering the “golden age” of a company which once held almost half of the global telephony market share. Around 20,000 items and 959 GB of files, including previously unpublished content, are accessible to the general public. “The archives remind us that technologies are not born magically, but are explored, envisioned, prototyped and tested not only by designers, but as part of a huge professional operation”explains Professor Guy Julier, whose research focuses on the global societal impact of design. “Right now, there isn’t enough creative exploration around our options – like they were doing at Nokia – or discussions that truly take into account people’s different needs and concerns, not just the interests of global companies or governments »he adds.
A dive into the history of the Finnish giant and its iconic phones
Jumbled together, we can rediscover the astonishing Nokia N-Gage which is a bit of the ancestor of gaming smartphones. The latter will never succeed in establishing itself, unlike the iconic Nokia 3310 which will become a cultural phenomenon with its legendary robustness, its long battery life and the Snake game. More recently, the Nokia E61 and E61i are remembered as responses to the BlackBerry offering from Canadian RIM. We also remember the Nokia 8110, which remained famous for its presence in the film Matrix and its curved design. This even earned it the nickname “banana phone”.
-These archives are available at a time when the telephone market is experiencing a new turning point in its history. The arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) and new formats (folding in two or three, rollable, etc.) is shaking up the sector and could reshuffle the cards, as was the case in 2007 for Nokia. The birth of the iPhone, which popularized the concept of the smartphone, marked the beginning of the fall of the former icon of the sector. Nokia has been slow to respond to the emergence of smartphones with touchscreen operating systems, such as iOS and Android. Lacking innovations, Nokia will also multiply bad strategic decisions by trying to join Microsoft. Although the brand remained the leader in the sector for a few years, the decline was notable and the adoption of Windows Phone with Lumia proved to be a costly mistake.
Where is Nokia today?
Nokia even ended up abandoning its mobiles to Microsoft in 2014 to successfully refocus on its “networks” activity. The Finnish firm has become one of the most important telecommunications equipment manufacturers in the world, while Nokia smartphones still exist thanks to the Finnish company HMD Global, founded by former Nokia executives. She does not hesitate to regularly revive iconic models. The Nokia 3310 even made its return in smartphone version in 2023.
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