back to article Lumia rebrand begins: Nokia's new UK web home is Microsoft.com

Microsoft has quietly begun the process of transitioning its Lumia smartphones away from Nokia branding, beginning by moving the line's website to a new, in-house URL. Navigating to the UK version of Nokia.com now displays a landing page bearing the message, "Step inside our new home. Nokia devices and services have moved to a …

  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Finally

    Free from the mobile world's terrible associations of the name Nokia the phones will be able to soar with the huge snuggly fluffy love that everyone feels for the Microsoft brand.

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Holmes

      Re: Finally

      Well, at least it sounds like Microsoft are getting closer to launching a smartphone. They are a bit late now though, the market is basically a 2 horse race and one of those has only got 3 legs. I still can't wait to see one. If they advertise it right, it could do ok, but they'd do well to avoid using the word "Windows" or "Microsoft" in whatever they call it due to the terrible negativity the public has with those terms. Just choose a new word entirely, and make sure there's no obvious joke people can make about it - like it sounding Loonier, for example. And for Gods sake use Android - it's clearly the first choice of the masses, so all this reinventing the wheel for it to only turn out all unusable squares would be just plain stupid.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Finally

        > If they advertise it right,

        The current range of ads really is appalling, unless their target audience is the class of male, jaded, exhausted one-dimensional corporate bods, in which case, good work.

      2. Vic

        Re: Finally

        And for Gods sake use Android

        They can't use Android. It has a GPLv2 Linux kernel in it.

        Section 7 of the GPL v2 specifically states :-

        For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

        So Microsoft can only redistribute that kernel if they license any patents they might hold to all Linux users - and that is the end of their patent FUD against Linux. That's not going to happen...

        Vic.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Finally

        "And for Gods sake use Android"

        Microsoft are heavily after the corporate market and Android has terrible security for that - whereas as Windows Phone is highly secure. Not to mention Android far less efficient and more laggy than Windows Phone and having greater hardware requirements / poorer battery life to name a few good reasons why that's not likely to happen.

  2. Dan Paul

    Only an IDIOT...

    buys the company name and then doesn't use it for something.

    1. Andy Non Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Only an IDIOT...

      My current mobile phone (several years old) is a Nokia. It has been a decent and reliable phone. However, the next phone definitely won't be a Microsoft phone!

    2. Philip Lewis

      Re: Only an IDIOT...

      You would be surprised how often it happens. In fact it happens so often that there must be something I am missing. However, in this case, MS only has the name for a very short time, so they are in a bit of a hurry to "rebrand" - not that it will help, mind you.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only an IDIOT...

      "buys the company name and then doesn't use it for something."

      To be fair to Microsoft, they bought the assets and (in practical terms) only had a short term lease on the brand name. This was always the plan, because MS think they can become Apple by integrated ownership of hardware manufacture and software (overlooking Google's drive-by ownership of Motorola.

      Unfortunately in the grand scheme of desirability the brand "Microsoft" sits somewhere below the brand "common cold", about par with "diaorrhea" albeit comfortably above "ebola".

  3. h3

    It would be really funny if come 2016 Nokia starts releasing Android phones.

  4. etabeta
    FAIL

    This is going to backfire for M$

    Best way to reduce ex-Nokia sales another 75%. How can they be so stupid?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    informative article

    Thanks. didn't know Microsoft had a web site

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: informative article

      That's unfair. Microsoft have had a web site ever since they invented the internet

      (Comment best viewed in IE6)

  6. John P

    Microsoft Lumia XXX with Windows.

    It wouldn't surprise me. Microsoft, like myself, should never be allowed to name things EVER.

    That being said, as long as the phones are decent, I don't care whose name is on them. But Microsoft isn't a name that most people will want on their expensive shiny shiny. If I were them, I'd just use Lumia and not put the word "Microsoft" anywhere on any of their devices, their sales will thank them for it...

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Microsoft Lumia XXX with Windows.

      When they launched the X-Box they were careful to hide the Microsoft name. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to realise the same for other consumer brands. But nobody ever accused Microsoft's marketdroids of having imagination.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Microsoft Lumia XXX with Windows.

        "When they launched the X-Box they were careful to hide the Microsoft name"

        Rubbish. It clearly says Microsoft on the packaging and on ever game.

  7. yowl00

    Is it so confusing?

    Microsoft's name may not induce an "I want it" feeling, but does Nokia really resonate with top of the range smart phones? IMHO reducing the number of names Microsoft uses is simplifying and doesn't increase confusion much.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Is it so confusing?

      The Microsoft brand has value. And a "Microsoft Lumia 890" may be a phone that sells, and sells well.

      The Windows brand, OTOH, has a negative value. A "Microsoft Lumia Windows Phone" will not sell.

      Microsoft does not yet remotely understand what they've done to the Windows brand. Until they understand the dept of their mistakes, they'll keep repeating them, and ruining other aspects of their business via contamination.

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: Is it so confusing?

        Neither brand has value in phone-land. Joe and Joelle Punter have heard of Apple and Samsung, and they've probably owned Nokia in the past. Some percentage know what Android is.

        But Microsoft on a phone? When did that happen? And who wants it?

        Microsoft have become the anti-Apple. Instead of operating a reality distortion field for punters, MS seems to have invented a RDF that only works on upper management - who all seem convinced that the Microsoft and Windows words make people want things, when in fact they're more likely to make them run away screaming 'No no no no no.'

        The Nokia deal looks more and more like a knowingly spiteful spoiler move to kill a competitor than a serious attempt to do something useful with the IP.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is it so confusing?

        "The Microsoft brand has value. And a "Microsoft Lumia 890" may be a phone that sells, and sells well."

        Possibly. But where I sit Microsoft is Windows, and Windows is Microsoft. In press surveys of "most respected businesses it is certainly true that a handful of clueless C level types and hangers on will grapple hopelessly in response to "what are the brands you respect?" and after a moment of terror will simply name the names on their desk in front of them. But in the consumer market people buy MS products only because there are few credible alternatives, and the repeated false starts and fails for Windows Phone have left a legacy of resentment. Android and Apple users ask themselves "why change?"

        For business this is all rather different and MS has enjoyed an undeserved status as "preferred brand", but coming from so far behind can they possibly catchup now that business has already had to embrace Android or Apple? Blackberry don't look as though they can make up for a few years of complacency, and they started from a dominant position in business, and have a brand that is far less soiled than Microsoft.

      3. Joe Montana

        Re: Is it so confusing?

        The windows brand and the false idea of a "unified platform" was poisonous for the old windows mobile (and windows ce)... I knew many people who bought them under the false belief they would be able to run the same programs as their windows desktop as thats what much of the advertising implied. Needless to say they were severely disappointed.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is it so confusing?

        "The Windows brand, OTOH, has a negative value."

        Only a moron would say that of a brand that still has billions in sales.

  8. James 51

    Maybe I can pic up a 1020 cheap. Do Microsoft have the ability to put out. 1030?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Maybe I can pic up a 1020 cheap. Do Microsoft have the ability to put out. 1030?"

      1020 went EOL this month so quite possibly the 1030 is imminent. You don't need to go that extreme though unless you have specific requirements - the 930 already has a much better camera than the iphone 6 for instance.

  9. Belardi

    Nokia, Microsoft... whatever, its still the phone that is sold in the dark dusty corner of every cell phone carrier in the USA. A busy store may sell a single Lumia for every 300 Android and iPhones.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "!Nokia, Microsoft... whatever, its still the phone that is sold in the dark dusty corner of every cell phone carrier in the USA"

      The USA is a less significant mobile market though than the over 500 million mobile users in Europe. Where Windows Phone is already hitting 10% market share in a number of countries - including the UK.

  10. Mikel

    Time for a relaunch event

    Splash out a couple billion for big name artists to show up at stores and give free tickets to concerts and endorse the brand again. And maybe another three story dance club and open bar with live acts at Burning Man. Add a few hundy mil for product placements on prime TV shows and movies. Gotta spend money to make money right? How about a half billion or so to become the official phone of the NFL or WWF? That would be great! Whole hog or none, I always say. We are "all in" on mobile, right?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just wondering...

    ... if any of the commenters above have actually ever used a Windows Phone?

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Coat

      Re: Just wondering...

      It's a long running pain point with me here - I want to, but still, and this is seriously in all honesty, haven't seen one in the wild yet. Which is kind of the whole point of my comment at the top of this thread, which seemed to cause a huge whoosh-over-the-head for too many, ahem, "readers".

    2. theOtherJT Silver badge

      Re: Just wondering...

      Possibly not, they're not exactly popular.

      That said, I like mine, but it's an elderly winpho7 device that I only use for work. Microsoft have got themselves a serious public perception problem, both with the "Microsoft" brand, and the "Windows" brand, neither of which are exactly a shining light drawing in the customers from elsewhere. The problems that winpho has, and to my mind none of them are totally unforgivable, are massively exaggerated in the public perception precisely because people think "Microsoft = Windows = Badly designed and unreliable"

      "Look at how flaky Windows Phone is. Well, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, it's a Microsoft product after all."

      That's what I keep hearing from people. Ask them to name specifics and they start to struggle. I really don't think that winpho is much worse than android or iThings but the _perception_ of it is that it's going to be worse, and so the flaws it does have - and we can't deny that it certainly does have it's problems - seem far more damning than they really are.

      When no one trusts you and you're trying to enter a space already populated by well known titans, it's not good enough to be "as good" as the competition, you really need to be blowing-them-out-of-the-water better in order to get over the image problem, and Microsoft just hasn't managed that.

  12. squilookle

    Meh. I have a Lumia 920. It's OK, Windows Phone 8 is efficient as a phone and pleasant to use, but Nokia/MS and the carriers made a mess of the Cyan, 8.1 update. There were lots of customers waiting months and asking where the update was, and the answers given were vague and unhelpful 'coming soon','in the coming weeks', 'under testing'.

    Also my screen flickers and my microphone is broken, tilt the phone the wrong way and the person on the other end can't hear you.

    I won't be buying another one whatever branding they put on it. I'm going back to Android. I'll choose carefully to make sure I get updates. Android may be all over the place in terms of updates, but atleast you have a choice.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Bypass the carriers

      Just install the Developer Preview app and update it yourself. I did with my Lumia 920, it didn't cause any harm or bother to my handset.

      Or make sure you get hold of a CV device, so you get the updates as soon as Microkia release them.

      As for the hardware faults they all come with a 2 year warranty, so if it's inside the 2 years, just get it fixed!

    2. Al Jones

      Cyan STILL isn't available on Verizon and T-Mobile phones in the US!!!

      http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/support/software-update/wp8-software-update/availability-in-north-america/

      (That's the new URL - automatically redirected from a nokia.com URL at some point in the last few days)

  13. Slx

    I think many of you don't realise that MS didn't get anything other than very limited rights to use the Nokia name on existing products. They can't continue using Nokia's trade mark.

    Nokia still exists, it just ditched its loss making handset division and retained its profitable networks division.

  14. MacroRodent
    Thumb Down

    The market share in Finland

    ... will probably plunge after the re-branding arrives here. So far Lumia phones have done much better in Finland than anywhere else, due to the familiar name, and the wish to support the home team.

  15. George 8

    Lumia 930

    I ordered an iPhone 6+ within minutes of apple uk accepting orders. Its still not due to arrive until 17 Oct. In the meantime, I looked around and yesterday bought a Lumia 930. Why? Hardware wise, its difficult to see why I wouldn't, its a well made device with great specs. I visited a few phone stores over the weekend and played with a few 6+'s and my overall feeling was that it was dull, nothing new about it. I've owned an iphone since the iphone 3gs but have found iOS increasingly showing its age. Its familiar, yes but dull now. It needs new ideas and the health app is not floating my boat. WinPho works well at 8.1. I've had an eye on it since the 7.5 release. MS still have work to do, but from the comments here, I suspect very few people saying "never MS" have actually tried WinPho. It works and the people hub is still the best implementation of how to collect conversations with people on any platform. As for android, no thanks. It succeeds on price at the cost of privacy. In summary, I'm going to cancel my iPhone 6+ order. Dont want it. I've got a great phone at half the price, with better camera and better software for what I use it for.

  16. Lamont Cranston

    "Microsoft Lumia XXX with Windows."

    Windows is a bit misleading - maybe they should drop the brand all together, and launch Windows 9 as Microsoft Tiles?

    And then relaunch Windows 7 as Tiles For Desktops, just to maintain the air of confusion.

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