After several companies displaying their firepower over the ongoing smartphone war with launches to redefine the smartness of the smartphone it seems the war is not just limited to fresh launches and more innovative brands but also several remixing are in the making. Indeed for the second half of this year the smartphone world has seen so much activity that consumers are getting confused while making decisions of which one to buy and which one to leave. However while all the mobile phone makers have some way or the other made news in the smartphone section one company which remained out of this smartphone frenzy is Nokia (NOK, Financial). Nokia is still remembered by many for its legacy of mobile phones. But of course we haven’t seen much of Nokia in the smartphone section this year or more so after the Lumia made it big in the smartphone market since Nokia sold its phone division to Microsoft (MSFT, Financial).
The IT giant did not show much interest in focusing on its function but rather added it to its bastion to have a presence in the growing mobile device segment. But of late it seems after the tech majors created a worldwide frenzy for smartphones, Microsoft is looking forward to take note of this and make a move in the segment. Let us take a look at what Microsoft is up to with its rather subdued smartphone brand the Lumia.
What is Microsoft doing with Lumia?
After the Surface lineage of Microsoft nosedived and hit the ground it hurriedly acquired Nokia mobile phone section and with the help of Lumia somewhat clung to the smartphone domain. But even after owning Lumia it still sports the name as Nokia Lumia.
Now after the smartphone market has gathered a lot of market focus, Microsoft has started the process of rebranding Lumia to make its presence felt in the smartphone arena. After shutting down the Nokia India plant Microsoft is now going to rename Nokia Lumia into Microsoft Lumia. The company has finally made it official that it is in fact, ditching the brand name Nokia for its Lumia devices and will now be recognized as Microsoft itself.
According to The Verge, the name change followed a slow transition from Nokia.com over to Microsoft’s new mobile site, and Nokia France will be the first of many countries that will adopt "Microsoft Lumia" for its Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that other countries will follow the re-branding steps in the coming weeks. Even though Lumia will now sport Microsoft on it, Nokia will still have its presence in the backdrop with its focus on mapping and network infrastructure. The new transition will be first rolled out in France and then rolled out globally in phases over the next few weeks.
How will the transition pan out?
Though team Microsoft is tight lipped about its roadmap of this transition or if any tech changes will come laced with this transition, but we have tried to create a probable roadmap based on the market reports thus helping you to reconsider your position in Microsoft. The Lumia 830 would be the last phone to carry the Nokia name post.
If we closely observe a Lumia phone, it has the name Nokia printed on both the back and front of the phone. Now there can be two possibilities the new name might appear. Either as "Microsoft Lumia" or simply "Microsoft" like the current "Nokia." Another possibility might be one side sporting the brand name Lumia and the reverse side sporting the company name as Microsoft.
Talking about the tech part of Lumia, Windows hasn’t been able to gain much ground across the world in comparison to its peers – the Android  or even iOS, for that matter. It would be interesting to see what the tech giant is capable of doing to the Lumia brand. Are they planning on changing the device completely? Only time will tell.
Final understanding
Better late than never, it seems that Microsoft has finally started recognizing the growing demand of smartphone across the globe. Before taking any position in the IT giant it would be best to first wait and watch the changes that they introduce in the new Lumia.
Since if it is only a name change then the sales number of the smartphone might not see any major difference. Also after closely observing the smartphone market movement it has been observed that the demand is shifting from just a smartphone to more of a phablet combining the features of both a tablet and a smartphone, hence it would be wise on the part of Microsoft to introduce calling feature in the versatile Lumia tablet 2520.
This move could skyrocket the brand to instant success as that is the need of the hour. However if no tech changes are introduced in the Lumia then Microsoft doesn’t stand a chance to dent the android and iOS market much. Hence it would be best to wait and watch out for the new Lumia and then take any investment call on the company based on its smartphone array.
