Goodbye to Microsoft Mobile's "Nokia"

So, since 2011, Nokia has been the biggest manufacturer of the Windows Phone devices. They had a partnership with Microsoft, up until 2014, when Nokia sold it's phone business' to Microsoft, renaming to Microsoft Mobile. The entire Microsoft Mobile was once from Nokia, very few joined since 2014. But what has been happening since then?



The world renowned leader in mobile devices, Nokia, has always made great products, and that didn't stop with their sale. Nokia's former executives continued the Nokia tradition, but it didn't go do well, as Nokia's former CEO, Stephan Elop, moved over to Microsoft Mobile. Nokia claimed Elop kept them from staying globally dominate in the market, and is the reason they had to sell out to Microsoft.

Microsoft's new Lumia logo

At Microsoft Mobile, they continued to produce Lumia devices under the Nokia name, although a year later switching to their own name. Microsoft Mobile also continued Nokia's feature phone business, in their own way. Nokia's original Series 30 and 40 feature phone business' were discontinued for their incompatible Series 30+ series. These retained the Nokia name the entire time, however, in advertisements were accompanied by Microsoft's logo.

Back at Nokia, they have been a designing a tablet, without the help of manufactures or a mobile division, a tablet, which was later on released as the Nokia N1 in early 2016, after Microsoft could no longer use the name for mobile devices, with the exception of feature phones. This device was later manufactured by Foxconn under contract, and distributed it in certain markets as well. Unfortunately for Nokia, since Microsoft had their patents, their hardware didn't look that different that the base model, such as the iPad Mini without Apple's proprietary hardware features.

After Elop was "retired" out of Microsoft Mobile, and Satya Nadella became Microsoft's new CEO, things became different at Microsoft Mobile. New devices were made unique, and unlike Nokia's former designs. However, the market, who trusted the Nokia name, didn't trust Microsoft's on a mobile device, killing off almost the entire Windows Phone and future Windows 10 Mobile market in general. Also, with Microsoft's name being on Lumia devices, other manufacturers stepped away from Windows Phone and went to focus full-time on their Android devices.

In 2016, Microsoft began the sale of their feature phone business, their last to still carry the Nokia branding, to HMD Global and Foxconn's subsidiary, FIH Mobile. During this time, many former Nokia executives left Microsoft Mobile and transferred to HMD Global. Manufactures were mostly transferred to Foxconn and FIH Mobile. Nokia, beforehand, had a slight partnership with these companies to make Nokia-branded devices, but became official in March 2016.

In September, during the end of the sale, Microsoft surprisingly announced a new Microsoft Mobile device to add to the lineup, the Nokia 216 and Dual-SIM. This shocked many, and it didn't carry anything Microsoft, as they knew they would soon have to give up ownership of the 30+ Series. This device was rumored to be made by Nokia themselves, but was not.

On December 1st, 2016, Nokia and Microsoft Mobile finished the sale to HMD Global and FIH Mobile. This almost made Microsoft Mobile nonexistent, but they still can sell Lumia devices, as well as produce them. As of December 4th, Microsoft can no longer sell the Nokia 216, or any other Nokia-branded feature phones. As of December 5th, they are sold on Nokia's website, with is managed by HMD Global. A majority of the other Nokia feature phones are starting to pop-up on Nokia's website. As these were Microsoft Mobile's, FIH Mobile will take over manufacturing, and HMD Global will take over support. As of the same day, Microsoft removed all of the Nokia-branded phone promotions off of the Microsoft Lumia YouTube page.

This is the end to the Nokia Lumia, and the mistreatment of the Nokia brand for the last five years. This is also a new beginning for Nokia, as they venture off into the making of their own brand of phones once more, this time through partners, and running Android as the operating system. Also, this is a lesson for Microsoft, even the biggest companies can go down with the wrong leadership. Although Microsoft already learned that, as Microsoft's hardware is getting much better. Both of them are off to great starts so far.