Nokia and the Mobira Cityman (Mobile Phones)

Our Friend the Computer

We’re back for season 3! Cell phones! Camila and Ana chat about the history of Nokia (the town and the company), the connection between car phones and mobile phones, and 80s naming conventions. They also discuss Gorbachev's famous phonecall on the Nokia-Mobira Cityman—a PR stunt that led to the phone being nicknamed the “Gorba” in Finland.

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Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana does our editing.
Big thanks to Darija Medic at the Media Archaeology Lab for recording and mixing our transition music this episode from archived Nokia phones!
Intro/Outro music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Research:
- Arthur, Charles, “Nokia's chief executive to staff: 'we are standing on a burning platform'”, The Guardian, 9 Feb 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/feb/09/nokia-burning-platform-memo-elop
- Laaksonen, Teemu, "Is this real?" said Mikhail Gorbachev with a Mobira Cityman mobile phone in his hand”, YLE, 6 Dec 2020, https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2020/12/06/onko-tama-todellista-sanoi-mihail-gorbatsov-suomalainen-kannykka-kadessaan
- Lohr, Steve, “Risk Inherited at Finnish Concern”, The New York Times, 29 Dec 1988, https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/29/business/risk-inherited-at-finnish-concern.html
- Montes de Oca, Bernardo, “What Happened To Nokia And How It's Still Alive”, Slidebean, https://slidebean.com/story/what-happened-to-nokia
- Vilpponen, Antti, “Nokia: Finland mourns the demise of its proud tech heritage”, The Guardian, 4 Sep 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/nokia-finland-microsoft-startups
- Wingfield, Nick, “Microsoft to Lay Off Thousands, Most From Nokia Unit”, The New York Times, 17 July 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/business/microsoft-to-cut-up-to-18000-jobs.html
- “Microsoft, Nokia, and the burning platform: a final look at the failed Windows Phone alliance”, VentureBeat, https://venturebeat.com/mobile/microsoft-nokia-and-the-burning-platform-a-final-look-at-the-failed-windows-phone-alliance/
- “Portfolio Expansion”, Nokia World, https://nokia-world.com/nokia-history/2/
- “The Nokia Mobira Cityman”, Microsoft Windows Blog, April 2012, https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2012/04/16/back-to-the-1980s-the-legendary-nokia-mobira-cityman-25-yrs-on/
- “Why do the names of Apple's products begin with ‘I’? Know the history of now-iconic letter”, The Economic Times, 24 Dec 2022, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/why-do-the-names-of-apples-products-begin-with-i-know-the-history-of-now-iconic-letter/articleshow/96478120.cms?from=mdr