"During the past decades Finland has developed from an agricultural nation into one of the most technologically advanced societies. During the 1990s, Finland devoted many resources to technology education and research, while companies like Nokia were growing. Among the results are the innovative Finnish high tech companies now operating in the United States" (Embassy of Finland at Washington). Nokia is probably the most relevant example of Finnish success in the field of Information Technology. The company was established in 1865 with the specified aim of manufacturing and exporting paper. It was located in a small community and, due to its necessity for large numbers of employees, it soon attracted more individuals and set the basis of small town. Throughout the following century, intense focus was being placed on the generation of electricity and the initial company merged with two more companies to form the Nokia Group in order to serve this desiderate. As mobile telephones increased in popularity throughout the 1970s, Nokia proved its ability to replace the older electro-mechanical analog switches with the more modern and efficient digital switches (Nokia DX 200). Following this breakthrough, the company continually conducted R&D to improve the quality of its products and included features such as computer control or microprocessors. "Slowly and steadily, Nokia became a large television manufacturer and also the largest information technology company in the Nordic countries. During the economic recession the Nokia was committed to telecommunications. The 2100 series of the production was so successful that inspite of its goal to sell 500,000 units, it marvellously sold 20 million. Presently, Nokia is the number 1 production in digital technologies, it invests 8.5% of net sales in research and development. Also has its annual Nokia Game" (Connect Mobiles).

Annotated Bibliography:

2009, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html...

In the recent past, the website has been subjected to changes to modernize it, but a shortage has materialized in the elimination of the data for the global average, meaning then that the information retrieved cannot be compared to international averages, only to specific countries.
2009, About Finland, Finland Embassy at Washington, http://www.finland.org/public/default.aspx?nodeid=35862&contentlan=2&culture=en-U.S. last accessed on July 20, 2009 -- the purpose of this website is a multifold one, including desires such as a familiarization of the Americans with the features of Finland and its population or the offering of assistance to Finnish individuals currently on U.S. territory. From a research point-of-view, the benefit is that the governmental portal will reveal reliable information, but it might tend to focus more of successes and not address failures or criticism.

Finland Facts, Visit Finland, http://www.visitfinland.com/w5/index.nsf/(pages)/Finland_Facts last accessed on July 20, 2009 -- This website represents a collection of articles focused on presenting the northern European country from a touristy stand point. Its benefit is that it reveals objective and useful facts in such a writing style that it attracts visitors by creating an extremely favorable image of the country.

Nokia History, Connect Mobiles, http://www.connectmobiles.com/nokia_history.htm last accessed on July 20, 2009 -- the website is generically designed for the IT passionate and has the primary feature of representing a centralized data base on vast and various information from the IT field. The website does not belong to Nokia or any other company, meaning as such that the benefit is that of information from tertiary sources.