Old photo shows Microsoft’s co-founder trying a Nokia desktop computer

Sep 8, 2014 09:04 GMT  ·  By

Few people know this, but Nokia, which is currently one of the largest mobile phone manufacturers in the entire world, tested the waters with its very own desktop computer that was supposed to help the company expand into this side of the market.

Called Nokia Data, the company’s division specifically founded to take care of the expansion in the PC segment manufactured several computer models between 1981 and 1987, but the market impact was really insignificant to say the least.

Bill Gates, as the co-founder of the continuously growing Microsoft, a company which at that point was already innovating in the software industry, paid a visit to Nokia’s factory to try the so-called MikroMikko computer for himself.

As you can see in this picture published on Twitter by Mikko Hypponen, Bill Gates seemed really excited about the new PC, although if you read the hardware specs today, you might not be impressed at all.

First Nokia computers

Nokia’s very first model of the desktop computer was codenamed MikroMikko 1 M6 and came with an Intel 8085 processor with a speed of 2 MHz, 64 KB of RAM, and 4 KB of ROM. The display had a 24x80 px resolution in character text mode, while the graphics resolution was 160×75 and 800×327 pixels.

The computer came with two 640 kB 5.25" floppy drives, while the upgraded model called M7 had a 5 MB hard disk as well. The operating system making everything possible was the so-called Nokia CP/M 2.2 and included apps such as Microsoft Basic, an editor, assembler, and debugger.

Nokia sold the computer for 30,000 Finnish markkas, which was approximately $38,000 (€35,500). The Finnish markka was replaced by euro as the currency of Finland in 2002.

The most advanced desktop computer launched by Nokia saw daylight in 1987 and was called MikroMikko 3 TT M125, featuring a 33 MHz Intel 8036DX processor, 4 MB of RAM, and a hard disk with a maximum capacity of 40 MB. At the same time, it also had modern connectors, such as display, keyboard, and mouse ports. MS-DOS 5.0 was the operating system powering it.

Microsoft and Nokia together again

Needless to say, Nokia’s PC business didn’t go as expected, and Nokia Data was officially sold to the British International Computers Limited in 1991, which in its turn was absorbed by Fujitsu a few years later.

Fast forward to 2014 and Microsoft is again getting very close to Nokia’s business, this time through the acquisition of the company’s Devices and Services unit. The deal was completed earlier this year, and as part of the merger Microsoft had to fire approximately 12,000 workers, most of which came from Nokia.

This time, however, Microsoft and Nokia are only collaborating on the smartphone business, while the Redmond-based tech giant is working with lots of other companies in the PC industry, including Dell, HP, Toshiba, and Acer.