Apple is more powerful than you think, apparently -- it is being blamed, in part, for an entire country's economic hardships.
"The iPhone killed Nokia, and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we’ll make a comeback," Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told CNBC on Monday.
For those unfamiliar with the intricacies of the Finnish economy, the paper industry and cell-phone manufacturer Nokia were once Finland's two biggest industries. Nokia in particular was Finland's pride and joy until 2007, when the iPhone was first released.
Since then, Nokia has been in a steady decline. Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 billion last April and immediately started to cut jobs. Last July, Microsoft announced it would lay off at least 12,500 Nokia employees. A small portion of Nokia still exists with its original name in Finland, but it doesn't make phones.
A Bloomberg Businessweek story from last August pointed out that Nokia and paper were declining due to the rise of new technology and the end of print, and Stubb last June famously accused Apple co-founder Steve Jobs of taking away Finland's jobs.
Sure, Finland would likely be better off if Nokia had stayed on top and if the print industry weren't dying, but Apple can't take all the blame. After all, Google sells more Android phones than Apple does iPhones, and iPads certainly aren't selling like they used to. Plus, isn't the Kindle partially to blame for the death of print as well? Maybe Stubb should have chosen a broader target than Apple -- like technology.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
This post has been updated with more details on the state of Nokia today.