14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone enthusiasts out there who are waiting for a new flagship handset to be released by Microsoft won’t have the chance to get their hands on the long-rumored Nokia McLaren smartphone, it seems.
The mobile phone has been long rumored to arrive sometime towards the end of this year with a brand new, 3D Touch user interface loaded on top and to be developed as the next flagship device in Microsoft’s lineup, but it seems that this won’t happen in the end.
A recent post on WPCentral claims that the Redmond-based company has canceled this phone, without providing additional details on the matter.
The device was expected to bring the aforementioned 3D Touch user interface to the market, offering a great software and hardware integration, but Microsoft appears to have changed its mind on the matter.
The gesture-based 3D Touch user interface is said to still be under development, with Nokia McLaren, a handset previously rumored to sport the codename of Goldfinger, being the only part of the project to have been killed.
The news comes shortly after Microsoft announced plans to fire about 12,500 people from the former Nokia Devices and Services division and could leave the company without a flagship handset to release this year.
However, it appears that the decision to kill Nokia McLaren was taken over the past few weeks and that it might not be directly related to the aforementioned wave of layoffs.
In fact, the news site claims that the current Windows Phone 8.1 GDR2 (the second major update for the new OS flavor) roadmap still includes this phone and the aforementioned 3D Touch UI.
The handset was initially mentioned in the fourth quarter of the last year and was expected to become official sometime in spring with the Windows Phone 8.1 OS loaded on top. However, hardware issues have determined Nokia to push its release back, rumor has it.
The phone has been said to sport revolutionary technology inside, designed to work with the aforementioned UI, including some features supposedly coming from Microsoft Kinect.
The 3D Touch interface is already mentioned in the Windows Phone 8.1 SDK, along with one of its main features, namely Mixview, though it is hidden from general access. A Nokia 3D Touch SDK is also said to have been documented, which suggests that Microsoft is actively working on the feature.
However, the touchless gesture capabilities included in the software appear to be far from ready for deployment, which explains why the company decided to cancel Nokia McLaren.
Even so, Microsoft might still find the necessary resources to bring to shelves new phones in the high end of the market sooner rather than later, despite a focus on the entry-level segment that was mentioned in yesterday’s announcement.