Salora Oy was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

electronics manufacturer based in Salo, established in 1928 and acquired by

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

in 1989. Its main products were

radios Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

televisions Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and other home electronics. The brand name is now owned by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

company Salora International BV.

History

The company was founded as Nordell & Koskinen in 1928 by F.A. Nordell and Lauri Koskinen. In 1937, the company introduced its first product under the brand name Salora (from a combination of the words ''Salo'' and ''radio''), and in 1945, the company changed its name to Salora Oy.

Products

Home electronics

In 1953, Salora released its first FM-radios. In 1957, Salora started to produce B/W televisions, and in 1966 the development of

color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

s was established. The first color television model, ''Salora Finlandia'', was released in 1968 and awarded with a gold medal at the Nuremberg International Inventors' fair in 1969. The sales far exceeded the expectations with about 150 000 units sold until 1974. In the early 1970s, around 1,000 televisions of various models were produced per day by around 2,000 employees. In 1966, Salora entered the export market by selling its televisions to costumers in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. By the end of the 1970s, around 60% of the production was destined for export. In 1967, Salora started to make HIFI-systems. The first model was called ''Salora Metropol 5''.

Radiotelephones

In the early 1960s, Salora started to manufacture

radiotelephone A radiotelephone (or radiophone), abbreviated RT, is a radio communication system for conducting a conversation; radiotelephony means telephony by radio. It is in contrast to ''radiotelegraphy'', which is radio transmission of telegrams (messa ...

s for the military, police and emergency services. This was later accompanied by the manufacturing of

car phone A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile. This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis on June 17, 1946. Overview The original equipment weighed , and the ...

s compatible with the ARP-network that was launched in 1971.

Co-operation with Nokia

In 1979, Salora and

established the joint venture company "Mobira Oy" (''Mobile radio''), which produced

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

s compatible with the then new NMT-network. Mobira Oy was then acquired by Nokia in 1982, and the company was later renamed to "Nokia-Mobira Oy". In 1989, Salora was acquired by Nokia and its business was taken over by Nokia-Mobira Oy. File:Salora sissi a 3 radio.jpg, ''Salora Sissi A3'' (tube radio, from 1928) File:Salora Playmaster.jpg, ''Salora Playmaster'' (gaming television, from 1977) File:Salora Manager.jpg, ''Salora Manager'' (home computer, from 1983)

References

External links

Elias – Electronics from Salo
Electronics companies of Finland Defunct companies of Finland Manufacturing companies of Finland Salo, Finland Electronics companies established in 1928 Companies disestablished in 1995 1928 establishments in Finland 1990s disestablishments in Finland Finnish brands Radio manufacturers {{Finland-company-stub