Microsoft pulls Nokia brand from France and India
By the end of this year the Nokia Lumia smartphone will be no more, at least in France and India, the software giant has announced.
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Microsoft will be renaming the line “Microsoft Lumia” as part of its effort to rebrand the acquired product on a country-by-country basis rather than a global switch.
The initial rebrand will occur in France where the Nokia moniker will be replaced with Microsoft Lumia on all social media sites.
Nokia Lumia’s French Facebook announcement read: “We are on the verge of becoming Microsoft Lumia.”
Whether there will be any technological or aesthetic changes to accompany the phone models’ name change, remains as yet unknown but Lumia 730, Lumia 830 and Lumia 930 are all involved.
Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile business for $7.2bn in April and has since discontinued several product lines associated with the name.
The merger was followed by the announcement Microsoft would be culling 18,000 jobs, retaining just 550 members of staff from Nokia India.
An internal communication memo discovered by the press in September hinted at further discontinuation of the Nokia brand.
It said: “As part of our phased transition, we will drop the manufacturer name [Nokia] from product references during the holiday campaign.”