Mobiles @ NCSU

Finland and Nokia: An affair to remember

Well done story.

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// published on Ars Technica // visit site

Wired UK

Pride and diversity. Dependency and acquaintance. Pride and nostalgia. Sun and moon.

These are the answers given by Nokia's vice president of software, the research director of ETLA (the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy), Finland's minister of European Affairs and Foreign Trade, and the CEO of Jolla—now Finland's new smartphone hope. The question was: use one word to describe Nokia's historic relationship with Finland and one word to describe it in the future. For those of you confused by the last answer, it has to do with which orbits which.

The trend is striking, even from Nokia itself. The company that built a country has lost its aura and relinquished the controls.

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Find: Microsoft buys Nokia phone; becomes a true device maker

Bye bye Nokia, we'll miss you.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

One of the most enticing "what-ifs" of recent years has come true: Microsoft has purchased Nokia's Devices and Services unit, bringing the Lumia lineup under the Redmond roof. The move unites Windows Phone 8 with its biggest hardware supporter, giving the company the integrated mobile offering it's been looking for with Surface and other devices. When the deal closes in the first quarter of 2014, Microsoft will pay 3.79 billion Euros for Nokia's business, plus another 1.65 billion Euros for its portfolio of patents. (The 5.44-billion Euro total is considerably less than Microsoft paid for Skype in 2011.) 32,000 people are expected to transfer from Nokia to Microsoft, including 18,300 that are "directly involved in manufacturing."

The...

Find: A look back at iconic Nokia phones

Nice.

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// published on The Verge - All Posts // visit site

Today, depending on your perspective, we either mourn the loss of one of the most important phone makers ever, or celebrate that the people behind so many iconic phones will continue to work under the Microsoft flag.

As Microsoft, Nokia, and any number of regulatory authorities get to work on finalizing the $7.3 billion deal that will see Microsoft buy Nokia's Devices and Services devision, take a moment to look back at some of Nokia's most beautiful, important, and bizarre creations.