Nokia Tune Turns 20

In 1994, Nokia announced one of its first major phones, the 2110. The phone was the company’s first to receive and send SMS but that wasn’t by far its biggest innovation; that would be the Nokia Tune of course!

Of course, the tone then wasn’t in the form in which it is today but at its heart nothing has changed.

It was written by Francisco Tarrega, the late Spanish composer in 1902, and is just a section from the original classic Romantic guitar composition. It consisted of just about 13 notes. The “Gran Vals”, the piece from which the original extract was taken was brought by Nokia’s executives, after which the tone was selected.

Today, it has transformed into a more melodic form, which is quite different from the original version but still just as easily recognizable.

And if anything, even more so. According to estimates, the tone is heard everyday about 2 billion times. It is impossible not to hear it in some parts of the world.

The Nokia 2110 also came with snake, and the inpopular external antenna. But it would probably have been forgotten if it didn’t come with the most-popular bit of sound in the world currently.