This biting assessment of Finland’s financial woes came from the Chairman of the Board of Sampo Group, Nordea and UPM. It appeared in Friday’s edition of the business magazine Talouselämä. Björn Wahlroos is one of Finland's wealthiest -- and most outspoken -- businessmen.
Computer technology expert Petteri Järvinen feels that the comment has some substance. He described the statement as quite bold and that, in terms of the paper industry, the shift to electronic environments has had an effect.
“However, the decline of phones had already started earlier,” Järvinen notes.
Comments "popularised but on point"
Nokia specialist researcher Timo Seppälä from Aalto University claims that Wahlroos’ view is popularised, but nonetheless rather fitting.
“It is an apt example in the sense that Nokia’s problems actually did start when the iPhone and iPad came onto the market in 2007. This has had an essential role in Nokia’s production volumes and therefore also on profitability,” Seppälä says.
The European Forest Institute's programme director, Lauri Hetemäki, thinks that tablets are competitively aligned with the paper sector.
“Electronic communication also affects paper industry prices. Where earlier paper industry companies competed against other paper companies in internal competition, today they are also competing against electronic communications.