Last week Microsoft CEO Nadella hinted at upcoming big changes, and boy, are they big. The company has literally shut down Nokia X’s operations, except for maintenance mode, but that’s now all. In favor of prioritizing focus on its core Windows Phone platform, the Nokia Asha series, as well as veteran Series 40 are reportedly getting the same treatment as the Nokia X.
According to the internal memo spotted by The Verge, the development of Asha lineup as well as Series 40 is being halted. The company will now only entertain it on “maintenance mode” — which essentially translates to customer services and technical assistance for the next 18 months. “This means there will be no new features or updates to services on any mobile phones platform as a result of these plans,” says Jo Harlow, who heads up the phone business under Microsoft devices.
As pointed out by Elop, Nokia is going through restructuring to mold itself into Microsoft’s vision. “Successful hardware was the goal at Nokia; delighting our customers with Microsoft platforms, services, and applications through our hardware is our goal at Microsoft,” Harlow adds.
Microsoft has its priorities clear, and it’s all about Windows Phone. The company hints that not only more affordable handsets will be hitting retailers soon, but the company is also working on making several new high-end devices. We learned that Microsoft will be borrowing the Nokia X’s product designs to Windows Phone, but there is more to that. The company is putting lots of effort on high-end devices and planning to “shift [the] flagship engineering efforts towards new flagship products timed with the next release of Windows and Windows Phone.”
The company will soon release several new flagship handsets. “To drive success in the short term, we plan to focus our high end go-to-market strategy on the Lumia 930, Lumia 1520, and other high-end products that we will be announcing very soon,” Harlow added.
