"You don't just buy a cell phone !!! - you buy a 'Nokia' " , My father told me as I was not very sure what to buy; I was buying my first mobile phone, It was a great occasion, but I was bit too skeptical about carrying the bulky nokia. It was year 2005, the word 'cell phones' was synonymous with nokia. I still remember the day , my dad bought his first mobile phone, it was a nokia 1110. It was sturdy , robust and could be easily handled, moreover it could easily fit into a poor man's pocket and wallet unlike the flip style motorola. The 13 tone nokia ringtone could be heard everywhere, at railway stattions , at malls, on roads. you name the place, it will be there. When my dad started using the alarm application of the phone, it had become synonymous with the daily morning "Suprabhatham". That sweet sound had saved me numerous times from oversleeping. Playing the snake xenia and pocket carrom used to be my favorite pastime (till Mario really sunk in ). I used to play those games continuously until by fingers went numb (or till my mom started screaming ).

By the time I had a phone, Nokia phones had come to find it place in every man's pocket. Carrying a Nokia had become a style statement . You wanted a girlfriend, you needed a nokia. (and a lot of money in your pocket for refilling your sim card, A reason to avoid girlfriends if you are living off your parents money ). But these phones used to huge, they used to bulge out of pockets and were heavy enough to cause damage if you get hit by one. In short , they were indestructible elements of mass destruction.Nokia has it roots in finland where it had started as a loser, making everything from cables tp paper. The firm was directionless at that time, by the 1980's it had decided to enter the consumer electronics segment, a gamble which worked well for them.From the late nineties when Nokia started overshadowing the traditional mobile phone giant 'Motorola' to its peak in 2008 , it held 40 % of the world's mobile phone market, nokia was the undisputed leader in mobile technology providing tech - savvy customers with what they required. The great OS symbian, the fantastic messaging systems, the OVI , the great designs , Nokia was the benchmark.

But when did the European innovation fail? What happened after 2008? Why was Apple , google , and samsung able to squeeze into nokia's market share ? Will the Nokia make a successful comeback with Lumia? I 'll be commenting on these questions the blogs I write later. But looking back at the period of the mobile boom , I think nokia was instrumental in making mobiles a necessity than a luxury that it was before. A shapeless Finish corporate which later changed the market dynamics of consumer electronics. But long since that time the finish giant seems dwarfed in competition with a 'bitten fruit' and a 'south-korean giant' . The later brand which I personally hate. A lot of other brands might have carved into the space and the hearts of people, but I still remain a nokia loyalist, so much that Lumia's release gave me goosebumps. For me,Nokia did not only connect people , it connected generations. In this part we saw the rise of nokia, stay tuned for more.

Regards

SlightlyDrunk