Microsoft sheds Nokia name with next week’s Lumia release

Microsoft sheds Nokia name with next week’s Lumia release

Microsoft Lumia is set to be announced Tuesday, but the Nokia brand is not going away completely.

Microsoft acquired Nokia for $7.2 billion in April, but when it announces the newest Lumia smartphone on Nov. 11, the Nokia name will be nowhere in sight: the phone will instead be called Microsoft Lumia, carrying the #MoreLumia hashtag to boot.

Nokia, known for its bright colors and powerful cameras, according to CNET has not fared well in the marketplace. Microsoft has also struggled, with its Windows Phone operating system managing just 2.5 percent of the global mobile device market, according to market research firm IDC, as Google’s Android OS owns 85 percent of the market share.

Microsoft’s strategy to drop Nokia from the Lumia smartphone line signifies an attempt at a fresh marketing approach, but the Redmond company is not doing away with the brand completely. Microsoft plans to keep the Nokia name on entry-level devices sold in emerging markets, where it is recognizable, according to CNET.

CNET suggests Microsoft acquired Nokia to “more fully take control over its new smartphone business” and Nokia was seen as a “an ambassador of sorts for … Windows Phone platform.” Microsoft and Nokia now carry Lumia news on a newly renamed Conversions blog.

As Daily Digest News reported last week, Samsung, one of Microsoft’s main competitors and defendant in lawsuit over missed royalty payments, argued in court that Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia made Samsung and Microsoft direct hardware competitors and thus Samsung was not wrong in deciding to not honor an earlier agreement because it could potentially violate U.S. antitrust laws.

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