14 DAY TRIAL // This week, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft announced the largest set of layoffs in its history, considering that around 18,000 of its employees will be given the pink slip, with the recently acquired Nokia Devices and Services division being the most affected of its businesses, with 12,500 job cuts.
In addition to that, the company has revealed that it has adopted a new smartphone strategy moving forward and that it will re-purpose some Nokia X devices to Lumia phones, as it plans on focusing solely on promoting its own mobile operating system, Windows Phone.
Along with that official announcement, a leaked internal memo from the company reveals that there will be other changes made to its mobile devices unit as well, and that popular Nokia families of devices, including Series 40 and Asha, will be shut down within the next year and a half.
The news certainly came as a shock to many, but it was not a total surprise, as Microsoft had been rumored before to plan on killing the Nokia brand following the completion of the purchase, with phone lineups other than those running under Windows Phone said to suffer the most.
What did come as a surprise, however, was a report regarding the long-awaited Windows Phone 8.1 flagship device called Nokia McLaren, which suggested that the phone had been killed and that the technology it was supposed to bring to the market had been delayed.
At the moment, Microsoft appears left without a true flagship smartphone to bring to shelves later this year, which determined many – me included – to say that the company has made a mistake by killing McLaren.
For those out of the loop, we should note that this phone, initially said to land on shelves under the codename of Goldfinger, was supposed to arrive sometime in November this year and was expected to be the one Windows Phone flagship to make it to the networks of all major wireless carriers in the United States.
Moreover, the handset was supposedly the first to bring to the market Microsoft’s revolutionary 3D Touch user interface, which reportedly relied on gestures that went well beyond the screen, allowing users to interact with their devices in new, innovative ways.
The phone itself was rumored to be a beast, capable of competing with some of the most appealing flagship handsets running Android at the moment, such as the HTC One M8, LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S5, or the Sony Xperia Z2.
To be more precise, Nokia McLaren was expected to arrive on shelves with a 5.2-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering a Quad HD resolution, a Snapdragon 801 or even newer processor inside, 64GB of internal memory, and a 20-megapixel camera on the back.
Said 3D Touch UI, however, will survive this wave of job cuts and strategy alignment. In fact, the decision to cancel McLaren appears to have nothing to do with the layoffs, but with the technology’s ability to impress, as Microsoft believed that it was not yet ready to make a splash.
Apparently, although enthusiasts saw this phone as the embodiment of their dreams, the software giant considered it merely a publicity stunt, thus killing it. Initial developer response to an early build of the device and UI appears to have been unsatisfactory.
Nonetheless, the decision does put Microsoft in a strange position at the moment, as the only high-end devices that it can promote are the Nokia Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930, neither of which has the necessary hardware and performance capabilities to help Windows Phone win at the top of the market.
Undoubtedly, the company will manage to find the necessary resources to bring a new flagship handset to shelves in the coming months, but should it not manage to do so before the end of the year, it would prove that cancelling McLaren had been a mistake.
At the moment, Windows Phone is gaining market share all around the world, proving that it can indeed be competitive, but it is only doing so at the entry level of the market, where last year’s Lumia 520 has already managed to sell over 12 million units.
In the high-end segment, however, the fight for supremacy has engaged only Android and iOS devices so far, and Windows Phone is certainly in need for a smartphone that can enter this battle, especially in the United States, currently said to be the top market for the platform.
Of course, Microsoft isn’t looking at all these from a phone maker’s perspective, as it is not such a company. The recently announced set of layoffs and mobile devices strategy realignment proves that.
Microsoft is more interested in promoting its platforms and services than on making the Lumia series highly popular among users out there. Thus, its main focus at the moment appears to be on the entry-level segment than on mid- or high-end ones.
To win in these areas, the company has already gathered a long list of partners, which have started to announce a variety of affordable devices aimed mainly at emerging markets such as India (this country and Brazil are the second and third largest Windows Phone markets at the moment).
However, I believe that, with Windows Phone now becoming increasingly popular even in matured markets and with the Lumia brand gaining more and more traction around the world, Microsoft should have continued work on McLaren.
In the long run, and the Redmond-based giant is most probably more interested in long-term strategies, killing this device won’t affect Windows Phone that much, but it might stall its ascension for a bit on the short term.
I for one was considering switching to Windows Phone as soon as McLaren was out, and I’m sure that there were many others thinking the same. After all, what could have been better than a multi-carrier high-end smartphone, right?
After seeing all the new features and capabilities that Windows Phone 8.1 has been released with (my wife has a Lumia with Developer Preview on it), I’m still sold, but I think I’ll wait a bit longer before switching, at least until a device that will peak my interest nearly as much as McLaren appears.
Although it might have seemed like a gimmick, McLaren could have helped the company up the ante in the smartphone space, as I’ve said before. Others have already showed interest in releasing devices with similar capabilities inside and chances are that Microsoft will reconsider its stance after rivals launch their products and users show interest in them.
Thus, what remains to be seen is when said 3D Touch interface – which, as mentioned above, is still being developed – arrives on devices and what smartphone will be the first to carry it. And I’m also sure that many of you are also wondering what the next flagship Lumia handset will have to offer.
Hopefully, answers to these questions will emerge sooner rather than later, as I would hate to see a platform that has been growing nicely over the past several quarters – courtesy of Nokia’s Lumia lineup, I might add – being left without a true high-end smartphone this year.