back to article LEAKED: Redmond not allowed to sell 'Nokia' smartphones after 2015

Microsoft has 18 months left to use the Nokia brand name on its smartphones and mutant Androids, according to leaked notes prepared for internal marketing guidance. Microsoft bought Nokia's phones business in April. Ironically, Redmond can continue using the Nokia brand longest for the part of Nokia it bought but didn't really …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Twitter Links

    It would be great if you would stop linking to Twatter and instead provide the information in text with quotes.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ditch Windows Phone as a brand, in favour of Lumia

    Assuming they're in a position to do so, I reckon Lumia-as-brand as opposed to Lumia-as-model is a good option. It's gained decent traction, primarily because they're genuinely good handsets, the ongoing relative paucity of apps notwithstanding.

    Nobody's heart races faster when you say 'Windows' phone but spin the whole shooting match off, brand name, platform, hardware and all and Microsoft will likely have a brand people (especially here in Europe) will buy.

    Still, it's bizarre that they bought the handset business without rights to the Nokia brand in perpetuity.

    1. CADmonkey

      Re: Ditch Windows Phone as a brand, in favour of Lumia

      If my heart ever raced faster at the mention of Android or IOS then I'd go straight to hospital.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ditch Windows Phone as a brand, in favour of Lumia

        "If my heart ever raced faster at the mention of Android or IOS then I'd go straight to hospital."

        Oh I don't know about that. Give it a few years and smartphones will probably be controlling pacemakers; fear frequently makes my heart race.

  3. Trainee grumpy old ****
    FAIL

    No wonder Elop didn't get a look in for MS CEO

    Despite having their own man in charge they still couldn't get a favourable deal to buy Nokia.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The transition was so well executed no one noticed

    Yep, like how MS pretty much killed off the Nokia & the Lumia 710, 800, 900 Series by launching them with a 'stepping stone OS', that anyone with any knowledge of Window NT Kernel, knew wouldn't get an upgrade to WP8, rumours spread and for 6 months between March 2012 and October 2012, pretty much killed sales of Nokia phones. A pretty seemless f.tuck up to me.

  5. Richard Jones 1
    Unhappy

    @Feature Phones'

    I was sent what I guess was a feature phone about 18 months ago. It took me two days, (on one of which I was having spinal surgery) to find out that it featured nothing of use to me. It has not been switched on since. I still use the 8 year old handset that has no 'features' like meaningless web links or other valueless propositions.

    The winphone might be useful to some and good luck to them. They can be happy what with the winphone, Apple 'thing' and the Android items they are spoiled for choice. Sadly, those devices may be SMART or feature but they lack function for me; anyone know how to build good replacement lithium batteries for functional phones?.

    1. Bad Beaver

      Re: @Feature Phones'

      Usually you can find those batteries in the usual places. I will sure stock some for all those nice E-Series phones that just refuse to break no matter how often I drop them.

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: @Feature Phones'

      I like my Lumia 1020, but the best phone I ever had was my Nokia 6210.

      1. Richard Taylor 2
        Holmes

        Re: @Feature Phones'

        I have to disagree - the Nokia 6310i is it...

        1. big_D Silver badge
          Headmaster

          Re: @Feature Phones'

          I said the best that I ever had. ;-)

          Anyway, the 6310i had too many bells and whistles. :-P

  6. Mage Silver badge

    Bear in Woods etc.

    We knew this, but perhaps not exact details.

    MS has paid a lot for something Nokia wanted to dump.

    Nokia still exists. Who knows what they will do next?

    Paper

    Welly boots

    TVs

    Sat Boxes

    Computers

    Phones

    They still do Network Infrastructure.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Bear in Woods etc.

      And when the deal was first announced, they said that they had the rights to use the Nokia name with Smartphones until 2016; so it is a bit of a non-story.

      BTW, I got my third WP8.1 post RTM update this morning.

    2. davidp231

      Re: Bear in Woods etc.

      They made monitors too... In fact they made a cool 20inch monitor that could happily fit the innards of an old G3 iMac in.

  7. Steve Knox

    "finished ... but would be even more finished once it received an update. "

    Or as it's know in the industry, "a Microsoft product."

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Correction

    "Almost everything has been rewritten since then, although the transition was so well executed that nobody noticed."

    No, there WAS nobody to notice. The transition could have been excellent, it could have been appalling. If a mime is squashed by a tree and there is nobody to laugh, did it ever really happen?

  9. Bad Beaver

    ripples on a pond

    … as left, say, by a little boat… how do the Finns say? Ah, yes…  "Jolla".

  10. Bladeforce

    So its out..

    ..of date soon anyway. Microsoft sure as hell knows how to shoot itself in the foot

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So its out..

      Microsoft sure as hell knows how to shoot itself in the foot

      Yes, if they ever manage to turn that into a product it'll be world beating..

  11. James 51

    Okay, I've got mild sunstroke but after reading the article one thing is not clear. I thought from the coverage a few months ago MS had 10 years to use the Nokia name for phones. Did this change in the final deal or is it an internal strategy decision?

    BTW BB10 has a good level of support for social platforms. It can get alerts and make posts without opening apps though I am guessing the OS is leveraging the apps to do so. Does this make it be platform that best integrates socal platforms?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Did you mean "leveraging the APIs"? Since that's what they're for....

      1. James 51

        No, I deleted the facebook app and tried using the fb command to make a post and it asked me to download the app to be able to use that.

  12. Roland6 Silver badge

    Obviously didn't pay attention

    MS's use of the 'nokia' brand name for two years was part of the original MS Nokia deal. I seem to remember reading on El Reg...

  13. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Deep integration of Twaddle

    I will happily have a smartphone that doesn't think it's there to waste time and bandwidth on Twitbook. It pisses me off no end that my existing Android phone is stuffed with this unremovable crap, (which keeps wanting to update itself).

    It's not the loading the crap onto the devices that winds me up. It's that they make it unremovable. It's my bloody phone. No commercial company has any right to squat on my property without my agreement.

    It's like McD giving themselves the right to put a burger stand in my front garden.

    1. RaidOne

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle @ Terry 6

      Did you tell this to the company you bought the phone from? If you didn't, you should not complain here.

      As a fix, look into rooting your phone.

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Re: Deep integration of Twaddle @ Terry 6

        Yes, not that they care. And rooting invalidates the warranty, as iunderstand it.

        1. Zane

          Re: Deep integration of Twaddle @ Terry 6

          Yep, invaildates warranty. However, a rooted phone can normally be brought back to its original state, so hard to prove you've rooted it.

          Main problem with the stuff is that they are very different levels of complexity. Some phones can be unrooted with one-click solution, others need much more work. Find your phone+provider on the net, for most flavors you get tons of how-to's. Take your time to read them - it pays out!

          /Zane

          who has rooted a Galaxy 2S with T-Mobile Branding and 2.3 Kernel (I'd claim it doesn't get harder).

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

      Excuse me, Mr Terry, but could you run an extension cable out to our grill? Thank you very much.

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

        Charlie,

        Sorry, the guy from Pizza Hut already got it.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

      Actually, it's more like McDonalds forcing you to leave the pickles in your Big Mac, whether you want them or not.

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

        Yeah OK. I'll give you that.

        Especially since the phone comes on a contract.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

      You and me, both. I just don't have the guts (too much time left on the contract) to try loading Cyanogen (unless someone can point me to one that is straight-forward).

    5. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

      Warning: thread drift

      Root that POS and delete that crap! I cleaned mine within the first 3 months of buying it and it was the first smart phone I've ever owned!

      It's the same reason I run ad/malware/tracking/beacon blockers when surfing. Stop wasting MY bandwidth you fucking thieves and keep your goddamn nose out of MY personal business!

    6. Zane
      Angel

      Re: Deep integration of Twaddle

      That has nothing today with your Android - it's your bloody provider who is the reason (or the manufacturer, or both).

      Get your phone rooted. Don't cry about living in a cage when the door's wide open.

      /Zane

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sensible of Nokia to keep Here...

    They have a mapping system for anything that isn't iOS or Android....

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Sensible of Nokia to keep Here...

      My work phone is Android the old one was Symbian

      The older phone had a much better satnav and maps

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sensible of Nokia to keep Here...

        "My work phone is Android the old one was Symbian

        The older phone had a much better satnav and maps"

        Yes, I find navigating with Nokia more pleasant than with iOS or Android.

    2. mhoulden

      Re: Sensible of Nokia to keep Here...

      Definitely feels like Nokia is missing a trick (and probably quite a bit of cash) by not making Here Maps available for iOS and Android. It obviously wouldn't be free, but maybe a fiver for the app and one map pack and then a pound or so for additional maps would be a reasonable amount. It's certainly something I would pay for.

  15. h3

    I have a Lumia 800 and what I like about it is nothing is running until I start it specifically. Which means the battery lasts for at least 3 days between charges. The browser strips annoying adverts by default for whatever reason.

    (Compare this to my Android tablet where there is no way to stop a Google Play Services update which basically kills the battery. Anything greater than 3.2 is totally broken).

  16. IGnatius T Foobar
    Thumb Down

    Microsoft FAIL

    So ... the Windows Phone that nobody wants, branded Nokia, will become the Windows Phone nobody wants, branded Microsoft. Nothing really changes here. Android still rules the roost, Apple still rakes in the megabucks, Microsoft still has a phone nobody wants, and a desktop that's been bastardized to look like the phone nobody wants.

    Face it Satya, you've got a losing product that will continue to lose. The sooner you abandon it and start producing top-shelf applications for Android and iOS, the sooner you'll be able to start recording "mobile revenue" that comes from something other than patent extortion.

    1. Hellcat

      Re: Microsoft FAIL

      How is life under the bridge trying to catch billy goats?

    2. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft FAIL

      I do want a Windows phone.

      I hate giving my life to Google so that they can record my every move.

      1. Snake Plissken

        Re: Microsoft FAIL

        My HTC Desire HD died a couple of weeks ago. I needed another phone fast - picked up a Lumia 630 with WP8.1 for £110 SIM-free last weekend.

        Admittedly it is early days yet, but it is a superb phone and OS for the money. The App Store is a wasteland, but it comes with the bits and pieces I actually use (apart from a free version of 2048). It is going to fail, but it will do so in style.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Microsoft FAIL

      "So ... the Windows Phone that nobody wants"

      I'll hazard a guess that you've never spent any time with one, and don't have an industrial hydraulic opener powerful enough to open your mind enough to even try. Their overall market share may not be spectacular, but WP phones are gaining market share when pretty much no other platform is and look likely to continue doing so

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @TheVogon

    "Nope. They have ten years left. Possibly they will choose to stop using it sooner, but Nokia themselves said last year:"

    Bloody Hell. Read The Fine Article. Nobody is saying Microsoft can't use the Nokia brand. To quote your own quote: "Microsoft has 18 months left to use the Nokia brand name on its smartphones and mutant Androids"

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