

Finnish phoenix: The startups rising from Nokia's ashes - InternetGiant
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31044810

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bostik
As the person who provided the soundbite about the Elopcalypse, I am still
somewhat surprised to see it was quoted in full.

Various people came up with the term independently. I happened to be one. But
I sure as hell do not claim to have been the first one. My early use of the
term may have contributed to its spread among my friends and co-workers, but
that's just how any meme or rumour gains its wings.

To provide some context, I _am_ still a bit sour about the Elopcalypse. I was
effectively deprived of a project we had been building towards for nearly five
years. I stand by the quoted comment: the resulting destruction and turmoil
were the best thing to happen to the Finnish ICT space. Best, but extremely
painful.

~~~
jmspring
Former Nokia employee - lived in Helsinki in the early 2000s for a bit,
current MSFT borg (TED/DX) (many, many years in between) -- the stories coming
out of friends dealing with Elop appointment, HUT being merged with Aalto, and
then the cascading fall out was always an interest.

Nokia always had (and through the legacy/current hardware (up to Icon),
amazing hardware. The pivot the iPhone required and the software for such,
takes time and resources -- apple ended up having the jump + resources. It was
never clear to me if Nokia actually put the resources behind it.

~~~
jpatokal
> HUT being merged with Aalto

That happened in 2010, before the Elopcalypse got going, and you could quite
well argue that it's HUT (15k students) that ate up Kauppis & TaiK (<5k
combined).

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ptaipale
The headline would be more accurate - though not as punchy - if it spoke of
ashes of Nokia's device business, not Nokia as a whole. Microsoft took over
the devices but the rest of the company is still there and very much alive.
Net sales last year 12 732 M€, profit of continuing operations 1 171 M€. It's
not as huge as in 2007, but not doing badly at all.

But indeed there is a lot of startup activity by people who've left Nokia; I
joined one that failed, but I'm glad we tried. It would have gnawed my soul if
I hadn't joined an attempt when there was the opportunity.

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vermontdevil
Sometimes it's good for one large company to either fold or be reduced so that
all the innovative or productive employees can move on to set up new
companies.

A similar analogy is happening in Rochester NY with the Kodak's bankruptcy
proceedings. Now there are many smaller companies specializing in various
types of imaging business.

But the transition can be really painful if the area is not already
diversified or have a strong social safety net.

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jarcane
I live in Tampere, and I honestly can't tell yet whether I picked the best or
the worst time to decide to retrain as a programmer.

~~~
spain
I'm doing the same in Oulu and I am optimistic. Things will change and there's
reason to believe it'll get better:

[http://teknologiateollisuus.fi/sites/default/files/file_atta...](http://teknologiateollisuus.fi/sites/default/files/file_attachments/pohjola_tuottavuusraportti2014_web_0.pdf)

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bane
As an American who grew up looking across the pond at the Finnish demoscene, I
have no doubt that there's enough talent and smarts in Finland to come back
stronger than before.

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bruceb
They should just make old Nokias again
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8975623](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8975623)
There is a demand.

~~~
jacquesm
I'd buy one. My current one is doing ok but at 3+ years it's starting to get a
little rough around the edges. But since I can't buy a new one I'm just
nursing this one along for as long as I can and then I'll buy a couple of them
second hand and refurbish. If you don't need a smartphone an old Nokia
featurephone is as good as it gets.

Ultra reliable, super good battery life and made to take a beating.

And I'm not even a drug dealer :)

