“Finland’s prime minister suggested on Monday that Apple could be to blame for the demise of its two biggest industries, which in turn led to an economic downturn and a ratings downgrade for the Nordic country,” Matt Clinch reports for CNBC. “‘We have two champions which went down,’ Alexander Stubb told CNBC Monday. As well as the technology firm Nokia, he explained that the paper industry in Finland had fallen on hard times.”
“‘A little bit paradoxically I guess one could say that the iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the Finnish paper industry, but we’ll make a comeback, [Stubb said],” Clinch reports. “Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Finland’s sovereign debt rating to AA+ from AAA on Friday. It cited weak development, exposure to sanctions-hit Russia and said it could experience “protracted stagnation” due to its aging population, shrinking workforce and weakening external demand.”
Clinch reports, “Stubb told CNBC that his government needed to work harder and quicker and continue the structural reforms. Health care, pensions and municipal budgets are three areas which are key and have already seen some reform, according to Stubb. ‘We just have to keep at it,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Which reminds us:
Apple’s iPhone is a “niche product.” — Nokia’s then-CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, April 17, 2008
Before the iPhone, Nokia was making ok phones an people thought it was the best phones. After the iPhone launch the public realized how crap Nokia phones were.
Nokia kill themselves. They only can kill their poor judgment. Now it belongs to Microsoft which is adding the last nail to the coffin.
I had a Nokia phone and it worked pretty good. It was a cell phone got a camera, computer or music player.
It was small and easily fit in my pocket.
Now I have a powerful computer, camera, video camera, telecommunication device, navigation device, web surfing device, music player and more. And it’s two years old and works great. Change kills the unprepared.
Got = NOT. Darn spell checker.
‘Got = NOT. Darn spell checker.’
Check before posting – have patience Norm.
Even before iPhone, I realized Nokia made crap phones. I never upgraded mine as much as I do with iPhone, because it was basically the same phone in a different casing.
I had no idea the Fins could be so whiny. Did they really expect the world to keep coming to them for the same old crap once a better phone was made? If they offered good workers and cheap taxes like china, they might get Apple to build some of the phones there. Why do you think Apple goes to china for its production facilities? Want the business? Copy china, not Apple.
Blaming Apple for Nokia’s shortsightedness and shortcomings and a general trend away from paper is ridiculous. But there it is.
The paper industry was already failing due to email, scanners, and a little-known computer program called Adobe Acrobat. Just ask all the empty paper mills in Wisconsin.
As for Nokia, all it ever really made was pretty good and durable feature phones. It never made anything worthwhile in the smart phone arena, even when its competition consisted of Windows Mobile and Blackberry phones. Nokia was fat, happy and content to sit on its successes, which is why Apple destroyed the public’s desire for a Nokia phone when it introduced the iPhone.
Microsoft killed Nokia
Yeah remember before MS how easy it was to:
1. Sync your Nokia with your computer address and calendar
2. Buy, sell, distribute & create awesome apps
3. Use their “unbelievable” music/media store
4. Transfer info from your old Nokia to your new Nokia
Me neither.
Remember how before Microsoft’s sleeper agent… Err, I mean former employee Stephan Elop became CEO, Nokia made competent cellphones?
Remember how after Stephan Elop became CEO, Nokia started making nothing but Windows Phones and then promptly died because nobody wants Windows Phones?
I’m sorry, Nokia never made competent cellphones.
Things that should have been drop-dead simple–such as transferring your contacts from your computer to your phone–were totally convoluted or impossible. That was unforgivable in the year 2000, much less 2007.
Neither Nokia nor just about any other handset maker, saw such simple tasks as important to using a cell. It’s almost as if they were completely isolated from the rest of technology.
‘Microsoft killed Nokia’
Nokia killed Nokia.
I don’t understand why so many people have such fond memories of Nokia, calling the phones “indestructible” and blah blah blah. Maybe in Europe they were. But in the US they were the shit brand you could get at the gas station with your Doritos and Red Bull. I had several Nokias in the early 2000s and never had one that lasted for a full year. They would all just stop working for some odd reason eventually. People remember them as better than they were. They were the cheap garbage phones in the U.S.
The sharp downfall of Nokia is one of the most astounding things in history. I’ll never forget how the world changed on January 9, 2007.
“An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. These are not three separate things…”
Steve’s master stroke!
And the beautiful iconic illustrative OS that never gets old … sigh.
I’m sure Nokia sitting on their laurels for years without any significant new innovations had nothing to do with it.
Damn that evil thing called logic getting in the way.
Too Finnish To FAIL?
Nokia is the blame for Nokia not making enough money for Finland, not Apple.
As for paper, well . . .
Yes. And now Finland is running out of other people’s money (OPM). It was good while it lasted. Now, they are up the creek without a paddle.
all countries fail for lack of trees except,,,,,
oh wait there is another country we can exploit,,,,,,
Complacency and a CEO asleep at the wheel not looking out for dangers on the road ahead is always a corporate killer.
When light bulbs replaced gaslights/candles and the Model T ran faster than horses/burros … yes indeed, some economy players decline while others prosper. Been going on for all time …
USA! USA! USA!
Article gets +10 entertainment point for all the blathering Fandroids flipping out about it.