Microsoft Ditching the 'Nokia' and 'Windows Phone' Brands for 'Microsoft Lumia' The new name and branding will be rolled out in the next coming weeks, beginning with France.
By Benjamin Kabin •
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It appears that Microsoft is entering the final stages of phasing out the "Nokia" brand name for its mobile phones in favor of the new "Microsoft Lumia."
The decision to ditch the Nokia name really isn't much of a surprise. Microsoft acquired the Finnish company's handset business in April for $7.5 billion. As part of the deal the Finnish company got to keep the name but licensed it to Microsoft for 10 years. Well, it looks like the Redmond, Wash.-based company is ready to kick the name to the curb a tad bit early.
Microsoft has been hinting at its plans to kill the Nokia and Windows Phone brands for a while.
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Last month the company began redirecting visitors from nokia.com to its Microsoft Mobile website and in its latest commercials for the Lumia 930 and HTC One M8, Windows Phone isn't even mentioned.
Another commercial for Cortana – Microsoft's version of Siri -- makes only a brief URL reference to "Windows Phone."
If these clues weren't enough, an internal document leaked last month revealed that Microsoft would "drop the manufacturer name [Nokia] from product references during the Holiday campaign."
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France will be the first country to see the rebranding, transitioning from Nokia France to Microsoft Lumia on social-media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Other countries will see the change over the following weeks.
The Verge reports that Microsoft has confirmed the upcoming rebranding. We have reached out for comment and will update this story when Microsoft responds.
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