In 2007 Nokia sold about 437 million phones and was worth about 150 billion dollars, while Apple had never made a phone. Six years later Nokia sold its whole phone business to Microsoft for about 7.5 billion dollars, and in October 2026 Apple closed above 5 trillion dollars. This film follows both companies side by side: Nokia's rise from a Finnish rubber and cable maker, Apple's near collapse and the 1997 Microsoft investment, the iPhone launch in January 2007, the App Store, the NAVTEQ deal, Stephen Elop and the burning platform memo, the Microsoft partnership and the Lumia, the 2013 sale and the 7.6 billion dollar write down, and where each company stands today. Figures come from company filings, press releases and major news reports, and anything we calculated is labelled as our math.
Sources: Nokia and Microsoft press releases (September 3, 2013 and April 25, 2014), Reuters (April 25, 2014), CompaniesMarketCap and Yahoo Finance via Benzinga (October 15, 2026), Reuters and Bloomberg (2007), Nokia annual report 2007, Gartner (Q4 2007 and 2012 smartphone share), Apple press releases (January 9, 2007, July 2007, July 10, 2008, April 24, 2009, July 27, 2016) and Apple results (Q4 FY2007, July 23, 2013), The Guardian (2007), Reuters (January and October 2007, February 11, 2011, 2012, July 27, 2017), Microsoft and Apple press releases (August 6, 1997), Wired, "The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry" (January 2008), Nokia press releases (October 1, 2007, October 2, 2008, September 10, 2010, January 14, 2016), Engadget (February 8, 2011), Nokia and Microsoft press conference, London (February 11, 2011), Nokia and AT&T press releases (April 2012), Microsoft press releases (June 17 and July 8, 2015), CNBC and Reuters (August 2, 2018), Nokia and Apple press releases (May 23, 2017), HMD Global and Nokia (May 18, 2016), Nvidia and Nokia press releases and Reuters (October 28, 2025).
