Steve took our Jobs, says Finnish Prime Minister

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stevejobsvid

Most of us couldn’t have been any more excited for the iPhone and iPad. Then again, most of us aren’t the Finnish Prime Minister.

Speaking to Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri, Prime Minister Alexander Stubb has accused Apple’s late-founder Steve Jobs of crushing his country’s job market with two innovations that caught Finland completely off-guard.

“We had two pillars we stood on: one was the IT industry, the other one was the paper industry,” Stubb said — noting that both were affected by the arrival of Apple’s smartphone and tablet combo in the mid-2000s.

“Nalle Wahlroos, president of (Swedish bank) Nordea, described it quite well when he said the iPhone knocked out Nokia and the iPad knocked out the forestry,” Stubb continued.

He went on to say that Apple is at least partly to blame for an economy still struggling to recover after two years of recession. The struggling Nokia was eventually sold to Microsoft in a deal that was completed in April this year.

“Yes, Steve Jobs took our jobs, but this is beginning to change,” Stubb noted. “Our forestry is slowly but surely shifting from paper to bioenergy. Our IT industry is moving towards gaming, it’s not just about hardware like the Nokia mobiles.”

While it’s a bit harsh to blame Finland’s economic troubles entirely on Cupertino, it’s a reminder of why the kind of tech disruption Apple specializes in isn’t always good for those on the wrong side of it.

Source: The Australian

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