For years, one of Microsoft's most important mantras was "high volume, low cost." The company grew a lot of its core businesses by undercutting its competitors' prices in order to build a larger customer base.
When Microsoft announced its plan to buy Nokia's handset business -- including the Asha, Series 40 Nokia X feature phone parts of it -- it seemed Microsoft was going to continue along that high volume/low cost path. Even though those phones didn't run the Windows Phone/Windows Mobile operating system, Microsoft's plan at the time seemed to be to treat these phones as a gateway to transition users to its Windows Phone platform (someday, somehow).
Microsoft's announcement today that it is selling off the remaining feature phone part of its mobile business and only "supporting" (not continuing to manufacture new models) of its Lumia Windows Phone line is yet another instance of Microsoft signaling "our strategy has shifted." In this case, however, the shift wasn't sudden or even really new.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced in 2015 that hardware, for Microsoft was meant to be a supporting player for Microsoft's software and services. Surface tablets, Lumia phones, non-Lumia-branded feature phones, Xbox, and the Microsoft Band were meant first and foremost to sell Microsoft software and services. That was a big change from former CEO Steve Ballmer's plan, which was to try to go head-to-head with Apple in the consumer-tech space...
Goodbye, Microsoft Lumia. Hello Surface mobile? | ZDNet
Nokia phones find a new champion, with Android at its side - CNETNokia phones find a new champion, with Android at its side
Nokia, the Finnish company that embodied the mobile phone revolution until Silicon Valley giants pushed it aside, will live on again as phone brand.
Undoing a portion of its 2014 acquisition of Nokia's phone business, Microsoft is selling off its low-end phone unit as part of a $350 million deal announced Wednesday that will see about 4,500 employees leave the company. The buyers are FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Foxconn, and a new Finland-based company called HMD Global.
HMD will make Nokia-branded phones using Google's Android software, "uniting one of the world's iconic mobile brands with the leading mobile operating system and app development community," Finland's Nokia Technologies said in a statement.
The deal gives HMD exclusive rights for 10 years to sell Nokia-branded phones and tablets. Its CEO-to-be is Arto Nummela, a former Nokia exec who now leads Microsoft's mobile business in Asia, the Middle East and Africa and its lower-end feature phone business, which includes Asha and Nokia-branded phones. He's betting heavily on that brand.
The articles about this are confusing
They mention feature phones (of which there are Lumia versions)
I have not read about Lumia Smart Phones
Can anyone clarify what it is they are talking about
All Lumia phones
Lumia Feature Phones
Lumia Smart Phones
Redmond will continue to support Lumia, it says.Key note :
Finnish private venture HMD global is taking over a part of Microsoft’s feature phones business, as well as the rights to sell Nokia-branded devices.
•Microsoft will sell the rest of the feature phone business (the manufacturing side) to FIH, a subsidiary of Taiwanese giant Foxconn, for $350 million.
•Nokia Technologies (Nokia’s technology and licensing business) will license its brand and some of its telecom patents to HMD global.
•HMD global will have exclusive rights to manufacture and sell Nokia-branded feature phones, smartphones, and tablets.
•Nokia Technologies will have a say in the development of Nokia-branded products. These products will have to pass “mandatory brand requirements and performance provisions.” Nokia will also have a seat on HMD’s board.
•HMD global will be headed by former Nokia executive Arto Nummela, currently a VP at Microsoft.
The way I read the one article MS is keep the Lumia phones.The articles about this are confusing
They mention feature phones (of which there are Lumia versions)
I have not read about Lumia Smart Phones
Can anyone clarify what it is they are talking about
All Lumia phones
Lumia Feature Phones
Lumia Smart Phones
- more info here:
