Business | Telephone tower v rubber boots

Ericsson and Nokia are now direct rivals. How do they compare?

They are the last of Europe’s makers of mobile devices and network equipment, which once ruled the world

Mar 10th 2018|HELSINKI AND STOCKHOLM

“SUCCESS is toxic,” says Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia’s chairman, as snowflakes swirl in the wind outside. Asked what lesson to draw from his firm’s collapse, which started a decade ago, he underlines the dangers of doing too well. In its heyday, Nokia was a monster; its market capitalisation surpassed $290bn in mid-2000 and by 2007 it accounted for 40% of global handset sales. Yet its dominance in hardware, which encouraged a relaxed attitude towards software, bred failure. It is now worth $33bn.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Telephone tower v rubber boots”