Did Microsoft just kill the Lumia Line and Brand ?
Today, May 18, MS announced that it had come to an agreement with FIH Mobile Ltd and HMD Global, Oy for these two companies to acquire the feature phone business that came along with the Nokia Phone Division purchase in 2014. The acquisition included the Microsoft Mobile Vietnam division based in Hanoi along with some 4,500 employees.
Sold under the Lumia brand, these "feature" phones included the 105/215/230 models. To be clear these phones were not "Windows phones" per se, they ran what was called the Series 30+ OS and provided basic voice and SMS/MMS capabilities. Designed to sell in the low income parts of the world - these phones sell for as little as $29US.
But what made a lot a noise with some of the MS watchers in the short 3 paragraph announcement, was the following statement:
Microsoft will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia phones such as the Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, and phones from OEM partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and VAIO.
Many interpreted the above, by noting that MS did NOT state that it would continue to develop Lumia phones. But rather that it would support Windows 10 Mobile on Lumia 950,950XL and 650 as well as devices from a very limited partner set.
So does this mean that MS quietly killed off the Lumia today ?
I think it is entirely possible.
Even though as I noted in a previous post Terry Myerson recently sent a letter to key partners and customers that MS was committed to Windows 10 Mobile and that MS was in development of a new mobile device for spring of 2017, that new device may not carry the Lumia brand. Whether or not the new device will be part of the Surface line is still to be determined.
As Paul Thurrott called out in his piece on this subject, MS can not afford to have the new phone "fail" under the Surface brand. In fact Paul even questioned if the new device will actually be a "phone" at all, maybe more like a Surface Mini 2-in-1 with cellular connectivity.
So the potential exists that MS may be out of the "phone" business entirely. And that has potentially huge ramifications for both MS and it's partners.
MS today has a less than 2% WW Market share in smartphones. Of that 2%, the Nokia Lumia line makes up some 97.1% based on the most recent data from AdDuplex. None of the new 5 series devices have broken into the top 10 Windows Phone devices. Additionally only 10.4% of all Windows phones are running Windows 10 and of those less than 23% are new devices.
What is even more interesting is that the 5 "partners" listed above don't even make AdDulpex's list of top 5 vendors. So what happens to partners like Huawei, BLU, Samsung and HTC ? Are they even going to continue in the market ? HP's new Elite X3 isn't even out yet - same for Acer's Liquid Jade line. Did they just commit to effectively a dead platform ?
Even today, the Nokia 520 - released in 2013 still holds the highest share of ownership in Windows Phone. In fact when you look at the top 10, 9 of the 10 are the low end phones like the 435/530/630/640. Only the 920 which was heavily sold into corporate accounts makes the chart in 10th place. So it is painfully obvious that MS has not put out anything compelling enough to get those users to buy a new phone in years now.
My last Windows phone purchase was in the fall of 2014 with my 735 that I use only for Windows 10 Mobile testing. I won't buy another Windows Phone for the foreseeable future.
And that's the problem that MS has. Sure MS can try to place all of it's key services & apps on Android or iPhone, but without something to call their own and differentiate themselves in the market, there are just too many other choices out there. I have certainly used MS products on non-MS platforms, but that's because I had already bought into some of them. For the next billion new users, they won't have to.
Bottom line is it looks like MS killed of the Lumia line today and we'll not see a new mobile device from MS for nearly a year. MS has failed miserably in the mobile market and it will impact the company for years to come.
Sold under the Lumia brand, these "feature" phones included the 105/215/230 models. To be clear these phones were not "Windows phones" per se, they ran what was called the Series 30+ OS and provided basic voice and SMS/MMS capabilities. Designed to sell in the low income parts of the world - these phones sell for as little as $29US.
But what made a lot a noise with some of the MS watchers in the short 3 paragraph announcement, was the following statement:
Microsoft will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia phones such as the Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, and phones from OEM partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and VAIO.
Many interpreted the above, by noting that MS did NOT state that it would continue to develop Lumia phones. But rather that it would support Windows 10 Mobile on Lumia 950,950XL and 650 as well as devices from a very limited partner set.
So does this mean that MS quietly killed off the Lumia today ?
I think it is entirely possible.
Even though as I noted in a previous post Terry Myerson recently sent a letter to key partners and customers that MS was committed to Windows 10 Mobile and that MS was in development of a new mobile device for spring of 2017, that new device may not carry the Lumia brand. Whether or not the new device will be part of the Surface line is still to be determined.
As Paul Thurrott called out in his piece on this subject, MS can not afford to have the new phone "fail" under the Surface brand. In fact Paul even questioned if the new device will actually be a "phone" at all, maybe more like a Surface Mini 2-in-1 with cellular connectivity.
So the potential exists that MS may be out of the "phone" business entirely. And that has potentially huge ramifications for both MS and it's partners.
MS today has a less than 2% WW Market share in smartphones. Of that 2%, the Nokia Lumia line makes up some 97.1% based on the most recent data from AdDuplex. None of the new 5 series devices have broken into the top 10 Windows Phone devices. Additionally only 10.4% of all Windows phones are running Windows 10 and of those less than 23% are new devices.
What is even more interesting is that the 5 "partners" listed above don't even make AdDulpex's list of top 5 vendors. So what happens to partners like Huawei, BLU, Samsung and HTC ? Are they even going to continue in the market ? HP's new Elite X3 isn't even out yet - same for Acer's Liquid Jade line. Did they just commit to effectively a dead platform ?
Even today, the Nokia 520 - released in 2013 still holds the highest share of ownership in Windows Phone. In fact when you look at the top 10, 9 of the 10 are the low end phones like the 435/530/630/640. Only the 920 which was heavily sold into corporate accounts makes the chart in 10th place. So it is painfully obvious that MS has not put out anything compelling enough to get those users to buy a new phone in years now.
My last Windows phone purchase was in the fall of 2014 with my 735 that I use only for Windows 10 Mobile testing. I won't buy another Windows Phone for the foreseeable future.
And that's the problem that MS has. Sure MS can try to place all of it's key services & apps on Android or iPhone, but without something to call their own and differentiate themselves in the market, there are just too many other choices out there. I have certainly used MS products on non-MS platforms, but that's because I had already bought into some of them. For the next billion new users, they won't have to.
Bottom line is it looks like MS killed of the Lumia line today and we'll not see a new mobile device from MS for nearly a year. MS has failed miserably in the mobile market and it will impact the company for years to come.
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