Mikey Campbell
In an interview discussing Finland's recent sovereign debt downgrade, Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said Apple's iPhone and iPad helped kill Nokia and the paper industry, both vital cogs in the country's economy.
Stubb told CNBC on Monday that Apple's popular iOS devices were contributors to the downfall of Finland's economy and the subsequent performance of its debt rating, which Standard & Poor's recently downgraded to AA+ from AAA. The prime minister said much the same in comments on Finland's troubled economy earlier this year.
Specifically, Stubb believes the iPhone toppled former mobile phone monolith Nokia, formerly the crown jewel of Finland's IT sector, while the iPad took out the forest and paper industry.
"A little bit paradoxically I guess one could say that the iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the Finnish paper industry, but we'll make a comeback," Stubb said.
Finland is a major player in the European paper industry and serves as an important production site for companies UPM-Kymmene and Stora Enso. According to the prime minister, the rise of tablets like the iPad has dealt a significant blow to the overall paper industry.
Despite Finland's current economic woes, Stubb remains confident that both Nokia — referred to as "the new Nokia" or Nokia Networks — and forest and paper can turn the situation around. Nokia, which sold off its mobility division and associated branding trademarks to Microsoft for 7.2 billion last September, is reportedly showing gains in the telecommunications infrastructure sector.
Most recently, Nokia announced plans to expand availability of its "Here" mapping service on both iOS and Android platforms, bringing the navigation tool to wider swath of consumers.
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182 Comments
Can't wait to see this used as a reason to downgrade the stock again. /s
I think it's more China, exporting cheaper paper, that killed their paper industry. As for Nokia, blame MS and Google more than Apple.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/182787/finland-prime-minister-again-blames-apple-for-destroying-national-economy#post_2618463"]"A little bit paradoxically I guess one could say that the iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the Finnish paper industry, but we'll make a comeback," Stubb said.[/quote] Sure, but I think it would be more accurate to say that other issues allowed Apple to come in and dominate new industries that they hadn't previously entered. Blaming Apple is like being on Jeopardy and saying it's Ken Jennings fault that you didn't win when you lost because you simply weren't as effective as your opponent.
This guy is simply deluded...
While the iPad might be a huge success, changing the way many people perceive personal computers these days, it hardly replaced paper.
As for Nokia... well, while lots of people loved the hardware, Nokia has been selling the same kind of crap for around 20 years without any major innovation, especially software wise. Their downfall was just a matter of time.
All of this aside, I'm finding it kind of comical for this guy to speak of his country's IT industry, when apparently there is not much of an industry it if fares so badly without Nokia. This also shows how his government failed to invest and support tech startups over many, many years.
In other news: Austria blames Exxon for lack of snow
How do you say "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" in Finnish?