Nokia’s Devices and Services division became a part of Microsoft a few months back, and we all knew that the change from Nokia Lumia to something else was inevitable. The software giant recently confirmed that it will rebrand Nokia Lumia to Microsoft Lumia. Future devices will come with the new branding, but there’s no word on when we’re going to see it at the moment. Recently, the folks at Nokia Conversations managed to sit down with Tuula Rytilä, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Phones at Microsoft to discuss the recent changes.
When asked about the changes which will follow in the future, Rytila mentioned that we’re going to see a lot of changes in the coming weeks. The company’s global and local websites, along with the apps, have already embraced the change, and it will carry on with their social media channels in the coming weeks.
“This is a very exciting time for us and for Lumia products. You might have seen that in the last couple of months, we have already made some name changes to our apps to better reflect that these apps now come from Microsoft,” she said. “Our global and local websites are going through a transition as we speak and in the coming days our social channels will get a new name too – they will be called Microsoft Lumia.”
Despite the move from Nokia to Microsoft Lumia, the Redmond-based company still has the license to use the Nokia brand for 10 years, and it will be kept alive with the help of the feature phones. “Microsoft will continue to sell Nokia-branded, entry-level category of phones, such as the Nokia 130. We have licensed the Nokia brand for such devices,” Tuula Rytilä said.
The company has already killed the most of the Nokia handsets, including the AOSP based Nokia X line up in favor of Windows Phone, but we may get to see the feature phones in the future only with Nokia branding. We’re not sure if it will be as regular as they were under Nokia — a company which has switched its focus to networking and mapping solutions.
As for the ones which are already in the market, Microsoft said they will continue to sell and support those devices. “Microsoft continues to sell and support the Nokia Lumia phones that are out in the market, such as the recently announced Lumia 830 and Lumia 730/735.” she said. “We will continue to honor customer warranties and provide world-class care services as before.”
When will we see the first Windows Phone device with Microsoft Lumia branding? There’s no word on that as Rytila didn’t get into specifics, and mentioned she can’t comment on future products. But she did say the company may launch it soon. How soon? That’s still an unanswered question.
As I said, the changes were bound to come despite the fact that Microsoft could use the brand for the next few years, but it’s better to get your own branding out in the market. We’ll continue to update you with all the changes as they happen so stay tuned.
Head over to the VIA link below to read the complete interview.
