Microsoft ditches Nokia in rebranding effort
The once ubiquitous Nokia brand of mobile phone is no more. New owners Microsoft are making a clean break from the brand made famous with its old-school “brick” phones. Cutting edge smartphones from the company will now have the Lumia brand.
Nokia’s French Facebook page was the first to deliver the news with a post on Tuesday informing fans that the name is changing from Nokia to Microsoft Lumia.
"In the coming days, you will receive a Facebook message regarding the change of name of this page. We are on the verge of becoming Microsoft Lumia. Stay-tuned for more soon,” the statement said, in French.
Microsoft bought Finland’s Nokia for $7.2 billion in April. Trying to transition from a desktop and software guru into the handheld-obsessed market, Microsoft purchased Nokia's smartphone business and a portfolio of patents and services.
"We'll continue with Nokia-branded products, as Microsoft has licensed the Nokia brand for some time #MoreColorful," Microsoft is competing in the handset market with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android systems.
Just hours after the announcement, Nokia was cheerfully promoting the new line of Microsoft Lumia phones.
All of the lights! #LumiaLovehttp://t.co/GsVQ0yMfA3pic.twitter.com/WcHkMYwj8B
— Nokia (@nokia) October 21, 2014
The Nokia brand name isn’t being completely killed off- the telecoms and hardware divisions of the company will retain the name.
Microsoft is in the process of cutting back the number of employees, and plans to layoff 18,000 staff in the next year Satya Nadella took over the helm at Microsoft as CEO in February 2014. He succeeded Steven Ballmer, who held the top position for over a decade, but failed to stay on the same page as competitors who were transforming the tech industry away from the desktop PC.
