Microsoft Lumia Device thoughts...
The rumblings are that Microsoft might soon unveil their first Microsoft branded Lumia phone which has stirred up some past debates on things like whether or not dropping the Nokia name is a good or a bad thing.
I don't know how the market feels or reacts in generally outside of North America. But here, I think it depends on what gets delivered and I think that there is a good chance this could be more positive than retaining the Nokia name.
This isn't the only hardware they are pumping out, so we have a frame of reference in Surface. And my opinion is that while the Surface and Lumia brands have differing aesthetics they are both premium brands and look and feel the part. And they are not worlds apart. So, even if Microsoft decides to alter the design language of these new phones I don't think that they will end up being any less desirable than ones pumped out using the old Lumia style. Sure, there will be some who like the new design and hate the old and vice versa. But I think both are compatible.
Also, whether there was any Microsoft influence at all in the new design or not people will claim they changed it anyway. Because there is no guarantee the design will deviate. MS now own the Nokia people responsible for the Lumia design after all.
The point being, whether Microsoft sticks with evolving the Lumia design or bringing it in line with the Surface design, whatever comes out of Redmond under this new branding is likely to be an attractive high end looking phone (whether or not the internals are high end).
After design, another reason to look positively on the change is support. Surface gets very regular updates and lots of care and attention. Microsoft gives more attention to firmware and updates on their tablets than any company. Including Apple and Google. There is no guarantee the same would extend to phones which has always had a slower update cadence than desktop OS's, but having that more direct association back to a company which supports their hardware so well will undoubtedly be re-assuring to some.
Also of note. They decided to keep the Nokia name on feature phones. This could be a smart move. Many seem to speculate that it is the Nokia brand which is keeping the feature phone market in their pocket overseas. So, if the quality of the device and the association to Microsoft aren't good things overseas this should help them maintain sales there.
Either way, I'm looking forward to what comes out of this myself. The hopes is that it doesn't end up like the original Surface tablet... but then it shouldn't. Even those these will be the first Windows Phone devices put out by Microsoft directly, they won't be the first Windows Phone devices, nor the first devices by the hardware team responsible. So, the sorts of lessons they learned on the way to the Surface Pro 3 will have hopefully already been learnt within that team.
I don't know how the market feels or reacts in generally outside of North America. But here, I think it depends on what gets delivered and I think that there is a good chance this could be more positive than retaining the Nokia name.
This isn't the only hardware they are pumping out, so we have a frame of reference in Surface. And my opinion is that while the Surface and Lumia brands have differing aesthetics they are both premium brands and look and feel the part. And they are not worlds apart. So, even if Microsoft decides to alter the design language of these new phones I don't think that they will end up being any less desirable than ones pumped out using the old Lumia style. Sure, there will be some who like the new design and hate the old and vice versa. But I think both are compatible.
Also, whether there was any Microsoft influence at all in the new design or not people will claim they changed it anyway. Because there is no guarantee the design will deviate. MS now own the Nokia people responsible for the Lumia design after all.
The point being, whether Microsoft sticks with evolving the Lumia design or bringing it in line with the Surface design, whatever comes out of Redmond under this new branding is likely to be an attractive high end looking phone (whether or not the internals are high end).
After design, another reason to look positively on the change is support. Surface gets very regular updates and lots of care and attention. Microsoft gives more attention to firmware and updates on their tablets than any company. Including Apple and Google. There is no guarantee the same would extend to phones which has always had a slower update cadence than desktop OS's, but having that more direct association back to a company which supports their hardware so well will undoubtedly be re-assuring to some.
Also of note. They decided to keep the Nokia name on feature phones. This could be a smart move. Many seem to speculate that it is the Nokia brand which is keeping the feature phone market in their pocket overseas. So, if the quality of the device and the association to Microsoft aren't good things overseas this should help them maintain sales there.
Either way, I'm looking forward to what comes out of this myself. The hopes is that it doesn't end up like the original Surface tablet... but then it shouldn't. Even those these will be the first Windows Phone devices put out by Microsoft directly, they won't be the first Windows Phone devices, nor the first devices by the hardware team responsible. So, the sorts of lessons they learned on the way to the Surface Pro 3 will have hopefully already been learnt within that team.
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