Lumia 730 and 830 are the last Nokia branded smartphones

Sep 11, 2014 05:43 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft seems to be in the middle of an identity crisis. Since the Redmond-based company acquired Nokia’s smartphone business, Microsoft has been trying to redefine the branding of its mobile products (phones, tablets, apps).

According to previous rumors coming from sources familiar with Microsoft’s future plans, the company is trying to get rid of the Nokia brand and at the same time unify its operating systems (desktop, mobile) under a single brand.

It’s almost certain that the unification of desktop and mobile Windows under this unique brand will be announced at the next Microsoft event, which is expected to be scheduled for late September.

Now, a new report appeared, claiming the same thing as previous rumors, that we’re even closer to a rebranding of Microsoft’s smartphone business than we might think.

The folks over at GeekOnGadgets report they have been handed a confidential internal document that shows how Microsoft plans to rebrand its Lumia family of smartphones and Windows Phone OS.

As expected, Microsoft is determined to drop the Nokia branding from its Windows Phone smartphones and this will happen by year’s end.

Apparently, the Lumia 730 and Lumia 830 are the last Nokia-branded smartphones launched by Microsoft. The next Windows Phone handsets to be released by the Redmond-based company will be simply named Lumia, but there’s a high chance they will carry the “Microsoft” name along with it as well.

The rebranding process will start this Holiday season

The internal document mentions that “as part of our phased transition, we will drop the manufacturer name from product references during the Holiday campaign. Lumia is a trademark owned by Microsoft Mobile Oy.”

So, during the next Holiday marketing campaign, we should see new Microsoft smartphones without the Nokia branding and possibly with at least one more visual change.

According to the same cited source, the next Microsoft Lumia smartphones will also undergo another change and that’s the Windows Phone logo that’s usually etched on each device powered by the operating system.

Since Microsoft plans to unify all its operating systems under a single brand, the next smartphones will be branded with the “Windows” name, which means the company plans to drop the “Phone” name from the logo.

All these changes don’t come as a surprise at all, as they are part of Microsoft – Nokia rebranding process which started several months ago with the renaming of all the applications that contained the Nokia name. Here is hoping Microsoft’s rebranding process won’t be too confusing for customers.