CNN.
By some measures, 90 percent of Finland's residents have mobile phones

HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- Finland has more mobile phones per person than any other country, and the main reason seems to be Nokia.

Based in this country, the world's largest mobile phone maker has 30 percent of the global market -- selling more than 100 million mobile phones each year. The company's success has surprised many people, even here.

"Nobody could have guessed that Nokia would become so important 10 or 15 years ago," says Antti Kasvio, research director at the University of Tampere's Information Society Research Centre in Tampere, Finland.

"Of course we are very proud. People travelling abroad want to show their Nokia phones and so on, but most people don't even know that Nokia is a Finnish company. They think it is a Japanese company."

It all started in the town of Nokia, 200 kilometres from Helsinki. The first Nokia firm made rubber tyres and paper. The town, and the tyre factory, are still churning out rubber -- the smokestacks of the tyre factory are visible for miles around.

If Nokia is the most famous sign of the mobile revolution in Finland, it's only part of the story. Clearly something more is going on that has enabled the Finns to be at the very centre of the global revolution under way.

One thing is clear -- Fins and phones go together. By some measures, 90 percent of Finns have mobiles.

Telecom consultant Risto Linturi has studied this success and says Finns historically have put a premium on keeping in touch. It's a practical heritage in a country where having information helped you to survive the extreme weather.

"Our hundred-years-old national lore involves heroes ... our three main heroes involve a blacksmith, a witch of the north and a lore singer. Our heroes are heroes of wisdom and information, not heroes of war. I think this tells much about what we hold dear and important," says Linturi.

With such a heritage, today's Finland has mastered the art of making the practical also desirable. From fashion to furniture, this country is at the cutting edge of design -- and that goes to the core of Nokia when it designs its phones.

"If you look at our traditions and things that have been traditionally designed in, say, glasswork, and furniture in wood -- they are practical. Beautiful and practical. Form and function go together. I think that has certainly made a big impact in how we present our phones," says Nokia vice president Lauri Kivinanen. "In the end, it is a universal striving towards a good solution."

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