SURVEY - FINLAND: Nation's hopes resting on the next generation: TECHNOLOGY by Rafael Behr: Wireless internet already has a high take-up at home but the question is whether the rest of the world sees it the same way
Financial Times; Jul 5, 2001
By RAFAEL BEHR
Finland is a nation of what marketing jargonists like to call 'early adopters', the people most willing to try out new technologies, and to make them their own.
In the 1970s Finns were the first people in Europe using fax machines. In the early 1980s Finnish universities were wired to their counterparts in California using early forms of the internet. By the late 1990s, Finland had the highest level of internet and mobile phone use as a percentage of population in the world.
While a national predilection for gadgetry plays a part in Finland's emergence as a hub of information technology, there are more concrete factors at work.
By far the biggest contribution has been made by the telecommunications stalwarts, Nokia and Sonera.
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Finnish exports of electronic hardware, mostly telecoms-related, slowed sharply at the beginning of 2001. A prolonged fall in demand would also take its toll on new companies selling applications and solutions on the back of the telecoms boom.
"It will be interesting to see what the situation will be in the second half of the year, but we're still optimistic," says Tapio Forsgren, director general of the Federation of Finnish Electrical and Electronics Industry, a sector whose share of Finnish exports has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
A decade ago it seemed implausible that Finland would conquer the world by wireless device. The next stage is the mobile internet.
While a lot is riding on the success of 3G, confidence generally is running high. Judging by historical precedent, Finns, at least, will adopt the new technology regardless. The question is whether the rest of the world will follow.
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