Microsoft accelerated ditching of Nokia brand due to confidence in Lumia and Nokia having legacy baggage

Marketing Magazine spoke with Adam Johnson, the company’s UK marketing for devices talked about the phasing out of Nokia at Microsoft.

He says essentially that they’re very confident in the Lumia brand. Confident enough that they could make their own switch away from having NOKIA ahead of the license expiry (for smartphones at least) in 2016.

We wouldn’t have made the switch so much earlier than the [license expiry] if we weren’t confident that Lumia as the bridging brand would allow us to continue growing our market share.

Nokia stands for a lot of great things, the brand is very [close] to a lot of people’s hearts but in reality that’s not the company that makes Lumia devices any more

Lumia does not have the legacy baggage that, dare I say it, Nokia has, but it also doesn’t have some of the great attributes Nokia has

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1322853/lumia-doesnt-nokias-baggage-says-microsoft-marketing-director

Probably in some ways it’s easier to cut the Nokia cord now and set your own path in mobile.

But If they were confident in Lumia, why not leave the handsets to say Lumia and minimise the Microsoft branding that is placed at the back AND front? Like Xbox which has minimal Microsoft branding?

As a Nokia blogger, obviously we’d want some kind of Nokia consumer product to talk about (we love writing about Nokia related things too like Jolla and ex-Nokian startups too).

But more so for me as a Nokia FAN, the name was a representation of the struggles and achievements Nokia’s been through. Yes, twere many teams within Nokia that had moved to Microsoft who would continue bringing that passion and innovation. Essentially that means whatever products they make is Nokia at heart.

But it felt like it wasn’t really honouring the memory (more so with the Lumia 535 where NOKIA was essentially stamped out for a poorly placed and thought out Microsoft logo) to have the name just disappear into nothing. Especially so when we heard that rumours that Nokia was completely out of the game of phones.

In some ways, even though I’m ecstatic to have Nokia consumer products from NOKIA again with the surprise tablet, the Nokia N1, I still miss not being able to call these new Lumia devices Nokia. The thought of those hard earned innovations, PureView, CBD, Nokia Mix Radio (being spun off as own entity) Nokia’s designs, Nokia’s suite of apps having the Nokia name snuffed out of them…it’s just a bit sad really. It’s like making a great discovery, writing and publishing a research paper, and then the names of the authors involved swapped for someone else.

In my mind, because of the connection and because of those people, whatever logo they’ll have, they’ll always be Nokia.

Perhaps Microsoft knew in advance NOKIA’s intentions of returning to the consumer space? It might be confusing, especially with the marketing teams which Nokia to be rooting for. The one that’s all about Microsoft or the old guard pushing once more for Android? This way at least, with the 535 available with no Nokia branding, the NOKIA brand for high ends essentially returns to OLD Nokia in time for N1. We saw the reminiscing from all the major tech blogs when the thought of an extinguished Nokia was beginning to settle in. But then we also saw the world pretty much rejoicing at their return when the N1 was announced. The N1 doesn’t in anyway interfere with Microsoft. They’ll make money through royalties and services. Microsoft’s suite of services are, more or less, platform agnostic. Until W10 for phones perhaps, there’s no advantage in using WP to iOS or Android if you like supporting the MS ecosystem (except WP apps of course). It’s a win-win for all. What if it was actually a clever plan to allow a Microsoft friendly NOKIA to attack with high end Androids whilst letting MS ‘accelerate’ WP development (Because perhaps Nokia X from Microsoft looked too weird and as low end, didn’t harm Lumia). Eh, maybe not.

Cheers Kaizer Allen for the tip!

Category: Nokia